University Of Edinburgh, Reid School of Music, 14 Bristo Square, Edinburgh

The Reid School of Music, located at 14 Bristo Square in Edinburgh, is a tall, classical, two-storey building with a basement, constructed in 1858 by David Cousin. This Italianate former music school, now used as a concert hall, is prominently situated on sloping ground among other university buildings at Teviot Row.

The entrance elevation on the west side is symmetrical, featuring a central bay with bracketed and hoodmoulded tripartite windows. This central bay is flanked by paired, single-storey entrances that are adorned with classical columned porticos and entrance steps. To the north, there is a single-storey section that houses a museum, with five windows on the first floor flanked by shell-headed niches. The building is constructed of smooth sandstone ashlar, with a base course, a ground floor string course, and first-floor cill and lintel courses. It features ornate, dentilled, heavy bracketed eaves over a band course that includes inscriptions, along with bracketed cills and hoodmoulds. The south elevation is plainer, built in coursed rubble.

Inside, the main concert hall boasts an impressive classical decorative scheme, highlighted by a coffered semi-elliptical tunnel vault ceiling, a grand dentilled cornice, and cornice bands at mid-height, with plain pilasters between the windows. The floor is raked towards the west, and there is a piano lift leading to the basement. An organ by Jorgen Ahrend, installed in 1978, is housed in a case designed by James Haig Marshall of Ian G Lindsay and Partners. The interior also features classical architraves, timber dado panelling, and panelled shutters, along with a plain stair leading to the basement.