LD 483 Still empty

The Old Royal High School on the side of Calton Hill in Edinburgh  was meant to be the home of the Scottish Parliament when the first devolution referendum took place in 1979.  The outcome of that was gerrymandered by Westminster and the Parliament never convened even though the people of Scotland had voted for it.

It wasn't chosen by Labour for the Parliament approved in 1997 , allegedly because it was too small, though there was a strong argument for creating a Parliamentary quarter using St Andrews House, building a very visible new chamber if necessary out the back and utilising the old Royal High for committee rooms and offices.  

In fact I  have always suspected that I the visibility of it was what worried Labour politicians, not the size. 

Almost 20 years ago I was  on the Board of a group proposing to use the building as a Scottish Centre for the History of Photography,  a very apposite use given its proximity to the place  where documentary photography was invented.  However that plan did not succeed either.

There have been other  suggestions  including as a permanent site for Ricky Demarco's remarkable archive and recently the plans for an extravagant, and I have to say out of keeping, hotel  attracted a lot of attention but have now been turned down by planners.

I know work has been done on making it home fo the Edinburgh Music School, which would be great but what would be even more fantastic would be a firm determination to ensure that building is brought back into productive use, not allowed to keep decaying , visibly so inside and out .  

I have told the story before- you can find it  here - but  things have if anything got worse in the 2964 days and blips since then.