craft (2)

Following on from previous blips and comments (see Little Pip's Dundonian bandstand), here's a bit of filigree metalwork I've never really paid much attentioni to. It tops off the old Watt Institute building, which later became Heriot-Watt University's 'HQ' and is now part of the Sherriff Court. I assume this display and the very varied decorative stonework and sculpture down at street level, were all part of the advertising of some of the skills taught. I gather my own grandfather trained here as a mines inspector in the 1920s.

Not much of this kind of thing on modern educational establishments, which generally succeed in looking like what they are: bits of stock designs that are easily adapted to the client's purpose, be it commercial, industrial, or educational.

Generally, functional rather than inspiring.