The Royal High School, Regent Road, Edinburgh

Just a quick wander in the sunshine after work - the old Royal High School was originally going to be used as a parliament building, if the 1979 referendum for devolution was passed, which it wasn't. It was to take another 20 years for another referendum to take place before Scotland got a devolved parliament. Following on from that, we have the elections tomorrow for the next Scottish Parliament ... so folks, may the best team win!

The A-listed building was erected for the Royal High School between 1826 and 1829 on the south face of Calton Hill as part of Edinburgh's Acropolis, at a cost to the Town Council of £34,000. Of this £500 was given by King George IV 'as a token of royal favour towards a School, which, as a royal foundation, had conferred for ages incalculable benefits on the community'. It was designed in a neo-classical Greek Doric style by Thomas Hamilton, who modelled the portico and Great Hall on the Hephaisteion of Athens. Paired with St. George's Hall, Liverpool, as one of the ?two finest buildings in the kingdom? by Alexander Thomson in 1866, it has been praised as 'the architect's supreme masterpiece and the finest monument of the Greek revival in Scotland'.