Plans for Edinburgh landmark rejected by ministers

An impression of the revised design that was rejected by planners

Plans to turn an A-listed Edinburgh landmark into a luxury hotel have been rejected by ministers.

The initial plans for the former Royal High School on Calton Hill were turned down by the city's council in 2015.

Developers have continued to challenge the decision but it has finally been rejected by Scottish government ministers.

They said views of the building would be significantly compromised by the addition of large side extensions.

Their findings also conclude the proposed development would damage Edinburgh's World Heritage Site status.

The Old Royal High School was vacated in 1968

The plan to convert the neo-classical masterpiece was led by Duddingston House Properties (DHP) and Urbanist Hotels.

They wanted to transform it into a "world class" five-star hotel, building two wings at the side of the existing buildings to house the bedrooms.

The A-listed school was built by Thomas Hamilton in 1829 but has been largely unused for decades. It was vacated in 1968 when the school moved to Barnton.

During the 1970s it was proposed as the site to house a devolved Scottish Assembly. However, the 1979 devolution referendum did not result in an assembly and when the Scottish Parliament was finally set up in 1999 a new site was chosen.

The City of Edinburgh Council, which owns the building, granted DHP a 125-year conditional ground lease after the company won an open competition in 2010.

Scottish ministers agreed with the conclusion of the Reporters who examined the case that the proposed works would not preserve the listed building or its setting.

Overwhelming scale

They said the former Royal High School was a key building within the World Heritage Site and was one of the finest public and commercial monuments of the neo-classical revival in Europe.

The "overwhelming scale of the extensions proposed" would appear overbearing and be a "distraction in significant views of the principal Hamilton building and harmful to its setting", they added.

An alternative plan to develop the site for St Mary's Music School was given the green light in 2016 with a seven-year expiry date on consent due to the unique situation with the hotel plans being appealed.

Despite the approval of the music school plans, St Mary's currently has no right to the building because of an agreement between the council and the hotel developers, which is understood to run until 2022.