Old RIE

To be honest, I hadn't taken much notice of the Festival but, when Sallymair mentioned that the Old Royal infirmary, now the Futures Institute, was the venue for the Book Festival and was allowing people to wander around the building, I was immediately interested in paying a visit. I looked forward to seeing again the main corridor with its black and white marble-tiled floor, the grand staircase; perhaps even  retracing steps taken years ago.

But it was not to be. We found the main lobby, after entering the building from the rear, and had a lovely conversation with a nurse who had worked there, comparing notes in the Hallowed Ground that was the Main Entrance, but where were the glorious smart tiles? The floor surface was rough flagstone, so disappointing. We had taken the lift (smart, modern, compared with the gate-like lifts of old) up to that floor and then worked our way up as far as allowed, back and forth and down. Many of the display boards naming donors and legacies were scattered over different walls (extras 1 and 2 of collages of those we saw, though there will be many more hidden somewhere). Main photo is of the cast-iron balustrade at the top of the stair from the lobby, one of the few features I could identify as original.

Recollections of my own journeys through the building were thwarted at the outset as most of those areas are gone: to my dismay, most of the Red Hall was removed and, to my utter disgust, the chapel (where the hospital choir rehearsed) was totally demolished. There are many photographs, which include details of its beautiful ceiling, on the Canmore site. So many buildings on the hospital site are long gone so imagining my route there was impossible.

Once we decided that we had covered all that we could, the Canopy Cafe provided a most acceptable coffee and cake and, after a wander round the Book Festival itself, we crossed the Meadows to our bus home.