Music School, George Watson's College, Edinburgh is a Grade B listed building in the City of Edinburgh local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 30 March 1993. Music school.

Music School, George Watson's College, Edinburgh

WRENN ID
lone-cornice-sedge
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
City of Edinburgh
Constituency
Edinburgh South West MP: Dr Scott Arthur (Lab)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
30 March 1993
Type
Music school
OS grid reference
NT 241 713
Coordinates
55.92963, -3.21594
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Music School at George Watson's College in Edinburgh, designed by Michael Laird in 1962, is a single-storey building featuring a taller auditorium topped with a hyperbolic paraboloid roof. The exterior is primarily finished in cream ashlar, with some of the rear walls rendered.

On the east elevation, the entrance block includes narrow single and bipartite windows on the right, with a glazed portico extending from the outer right. A single-storey link connects to the main auditorium at the center, which has six large full-height glazed openings. To the outer left is a diamond-shaped auditorium with a saddle-shaped hyperbolic paraboloid roof and a glazed clerestorey area.

The west elevation features a library and teaching room on the outer left, rising to a fully glazed two-storey section. The single-storey link to the auditorium is similar to the east elevation. The auditorium is also mirrored on the outer right. The fixed windows have hardwood frames, while the link section features aluminium patent glazing, and the auditorium roof is constructed of timber covered with aluminium.

Local climate

Music School, George Watson's College, Edinburgh sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 970 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 76% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 53% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 43 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 81% of listed buildings. Of these, 25 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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