Royal Museum Of Scotland, 44 Chambers Street, Edinburgh

Royal Museum of Scotland

A symmetrical Venetian Renaissance museum building designed by Captain Francis Fowke of the Royal Engineers between 1861 and 1871, with the West Wing completed by W W Robertson from 1885 to 1889. The building has undergone several significant alterations and additions: a neo-classical South East extension by W T Oldrieve (1910–14), a South extension (1934–37) by the Office of Works, a West block by Gordon Benson and Alan Forsyth (1998), and internal remodelling by Gareth Hoskins (2011).

The main building comprises a two-storey and basement arcaded central block with a screen to a double-height glazed hall, flanked by broad-eaved three-storey and basement pavilions to the outer right and left. A first-floor bridge connects to Edinburgh University Museum across West College Street. The exterior is constructed in polished local grey sandstone ashlar, with shafts of window columns in red Melrose sandstone.

The basement is channelled. Bays feature paired stilted-arched windows separated by colonnettes on balustrades at ground and first floors, flanked by Doric pilasters at ground floor level and Corinthian pilasters at first floor level. A dentilled cornice and balustraded parapet complete the composition.

The principal North West elevation presents a three-bay advanced entrance section at the centre with two tiers of broad steps finished with decorative cast-iron hand-rails. Three two-leaf timber panelled doors with plate glass fanlights occupy key-consoled moulded round-arched surrounds flanked by Doric pilasters on pedestals; a revolving door sits at the centre. Carved heads occupy the spandrels. Paired stilted-arched windows light the first floor, above which a solid parapet is surmounted by three groups of figurative sculpture. Six-bay recessed flanking wings contain paired stilted-arched windows to ground and first floors, with a balustraded parapet surmounted by urns above. The two flanking three-storey wings have bipartite windows to the basement and ground floors with paired stilted-arched windows above, beneath broad modillioned eaves. Two sets of wide three-bay entrances break through the channelled basement to form new paired entrances at ground floor either side of a staircase, added in 2011.

The East College Street elevation shows a three-bay East elevation of the East pavilion to the right, with a channelled basement (sloped to follow the fall of the street). Bipartite windows occupy the ground floor with paired stilted-arched windows above, flanked by Doric pilasters at ground floor and Corinthian pilasters at first floor, with pilaster strips to the second floor. Broad modillioned eaves finish the composition above. A glazed bridge to Edinburgh University Museum features a stilted-arched Corinthian arcade with a moulded cornice and pitched red-tiled roof, supported on a channelled segmental-arched bridge. The Oldrieve extension to the left comprises four bays with a tall moulded base course, recessed windows set in two-storey moulded surrounds, a plain band course and dentilled cornice above.

Windows throughout are plate glass to timber sash and case. Red tiles cover the outer wings, while slated and glazed roof sections finish the rear.

The rear Lothian Street elevation displays a three-bay South elevation of the Oldrieve block to the right, with a tall moulded base course, recessed windows in two-storey moulded surrounds, a plain band course and dentilled cornice above. The 1934–37 block to the left presents a bowed elevation in moulded concrete, with a segmental-arched door to the right topped by a curved metal canopy. The bowed section at the centre features vertical mouldings and small recessed windows in curvilinear surrounds at ground floor, with tall vertical windows above. A glazed section to the left lights the stair; another segmental-arched door with curved metal canopy occupies the right side.

The interior comprises a three-storey main hall with a glazed roof and galleries supported on decorative cast-iron columns. Apsidal ends contain paired cantilevered staircases to East and West, with cast-iron balustrades featuring miniature stilted arches to galleries and stairs. Galleried spaces between the principal elevation and main hall retain original tiles at ground floor. Further smaller top-lit galleried halls open off the library. The 2011 work excavated a vaulted stone basement to create a lower ground entrance floor with glazed lifts and new staircases serving the main gallery space. The 1934 staircase to the rear was removed to create further open public spaces at the rear of the building.