Main Building, George Heriot's School, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh

Main Building, George Heriot's School

A quadrangular private school built between 1628 and 1693, designed by William Wallace, William Ayton, John Mylne and Robert Mylne, representing a masterpiece of Scots Renaissance and Northern Mannerist architecture. The building was refitted internally by Gillespie Graham between 1837 and 1840 (particularly the chapel), with further alterations to the interior by John Anderson in 1908.

The structure is a two-storey building with attic, arranged in four ranges around a central quadrangle. At each corner stands a four-stage three-bay square-plan bartizaned tower with corbelled parapets, gargoyles and projecting rainwater spouts. A five-stage clock tower with a lanterned octagonal dome occupies the centre of the north elevation. Semi-octagonal towers with ogee roofs sit at the centre of the south, west and east elevations. The exterior is constructed of ashlar stone: Ravelston sandstone faces the north elevation, while Craigleith stone is used on the south, west and east. Moulded dividing bands run between the ground and first floors, with cill courses at the second and third levels. The towers are finished with buckle quoins. Windows are aedicular, set within moulded surrounds decorated with exuberant strapwork carving in the pediments.

The principal north elevation displays a two-bay composition with the five-stage clock tower at its centre. A depressed-arched entrance leads through a pend to the inner court, flanked by paired Doric columns on tall pedestals and topped with a massive decoratively panelled two-leaf timber door. The voussoirs of this arch feature textured rustication. Above the entrance, four carved panels occupy the frieze, with a cornice supported by ornate consoles and surmounted by four carved obelisks. Between the first floor windows is an aedicule containing Heriot's arms, surmounted by an enriched pediment and flanked by barley-sugar Corinthian columns. The clock itself, dated 1836, is set in a segmental-arched two-light window at the fifth stage. The stone-domed octagonal bell tower above features shell niches, a lantern and weathervane. Four-storey towers flank the outer edges, each with enriched corbelled parapets and finialled ogee-roofed bartizans. The recessed four-bay intervening sections have blank centre bays with wallhead stacks. The attics were built up in 1642, absorbing existing windows whose dormerheads still remain visible.

The east and west elevations each display four-stage ogee-roofed semi-octagonal stair towers at their centres, flanked by bartizanned towers at the outer corners and linked by three-bay sections.

The south elevation features a tall semi-octagonal bay rising beyond the roof-line to an elaborately finialled ogee half-dome pierced with quatrefoils at cornice level. Three pointed-arched hoodmoulded leaded windows with perpendicular tracery light the chapel, flanked by two further pointed-arched hoodmoulded windows in adjoining bays. Traceried circular windows sit above. Two dormers occupy the attic, and bartizanned towers stand at the outer corners.

The north interior elevation displays a vaulted pend at the centre with a depressed arch, flanked by paired fluted Doric pilasters. At first floor level, a statue of George Heriot by Robert Mylne occupies a scallop-headed aediculed niche with facetted shafts, flanked by aediculed windows and surmounted by a richly carved pediment bearing the initials GH. A decorative sundial sits above. Three-bay arcaded loggias flank the entrance pend, with portrait busts in cartouches decorating the pediments of the second floor windows.

The west interior elevation contains a rusticated round-arched doorway in its centre (entrance to the refectory), decorated with a broken scrolled pediment and Doric frieze featuring stars and mullets from the Heriot arms, with the inscription GEORGE HERIOT JEWELLER in the pediment. A carved panel at first floor displays Heriot's arms and the motto I DISTRIBUTE CHEARFULLIE. A sundial adorns the chimney gable. The attic window pediments bear carvings representing the four continents, Death, Adam and Eve.

The south interior elevation features a richly ornamented key-consoled round-arched doorway to the chapel at its centre, flanked by paired Corinthian columns on decorative pedestals. The broken scrolled segmental pediment above contains an aedicule with an inscribed panel, flanked by caryatids. An elaborately finialled semi-ogee-roofed oriel turret with traceried windows and pierced quatrefoils at cornice level sits above (though it does not light the chapel itself). Pointed-arched hoodmoulded windows with perpendicular tracery occupy the flanking bays, with circular windows featuring the Heriot rose and mullet in plate tracery above.

The east interior elevation displays a seven-bay arcaded loggia with fluted Doric pilasters at ground level. An aedicule at first floor centre bears an inscription. The attic pediments carry carvings of the four Evangelists, King David and King Solomon. A decorative sundial adorns the chimney gable.

The interior has been substantially altered following the adaptation for day pupils in 1908 by John Anderson, but several important spaces survive:

The Council Chamber occupies the ground floor southwest tower and was furnished in 1690. It is oak panelled with a richly carved frieze and cornice. Fluted Corinthian pilasters frame a bolection-moulded fireplace with glazed Dutch tiles (under-painted with a cat and dog) and an overmantel bearing a shield with Heriot's arms and motto in a festooned wreath. Panelled doors with moulded architraves and cornices open from the room. The floor is laid in black and white marble tiles, originally from the chapel. Furniture was made by Trotter. A coffered plaster ceiling with egg-and-dart moulding (of later date) completes the decoration. An adjoining tunnel-vaulted Charter Room sits to one side.

The Refectory contains large flat-arched stone fireplaces at either end. The south fireplace features squat Corinthian pilasters and Heriot arms in a broken segmental pediment, while the north displays a bust and monogram in a triangular pediment flanked by obelisks. Studded timber doors sit in moulded stone architraves. A later compartmented plaster ceiling covers the space.

The Chapel was given a Gothic interior by Gillespie Graham between 1837 and 1840, probably to designs by Augustus Pugin. Gothic arched roof trusses rest upon gilded angels bearing heraldic shields, supporting a compartmented cusped ceiling. Gothic oak panelling lines the walls. A tall crocketted pulpit (originally positioned in the oriel window recess) stands within. Oak benches with fleur-de-lys carving to their ends provide seating. A two-leaf Gothic panelled door in a Tudor-arched doorway, framed by carved pilasters terminating in crown-shaped finials and decorated with carved frieze and the inscription GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO, provides access. Stained glass in the leaded windows displays the crests of noble Scottish families and the arms of the Incorporated Trades of Edinburgh.

Windows throughout are twelve-pane timber sash and case. The roofs are covered in lead: pitched to the south, east and west elevations, flat to the north. Towers and turrets are finished with ball-finialled lead roofs (except the bell tower), and the chapel turrets have Heriot arms cast into their roofing. Scrolled stone skews edge the rooflines. Decorative cast-iron down pipes with gargoyles drain the courtyard corners, while fluted hoppers serve the exterior. Decorative cast-iron lamps mounted on monogrammed stone brackets illuminate the building. Tall, decoratively corniced fluted octagonal chimney stalks rise from the roofline.