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Edinburgh, The Exchange, Castle Terrace, Saltire Court

Office(S) (Period Unassigned), Theatre (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Edinburgh, The Exchange, Castle Terrace, Saltire Court

Classification Office(S) (Period Unassigned), Theatre (Period Unassigned)

Alternative Name(s) Traverse Theatre; Scottish Financial Centre; Edinburgh Festival Centre; Cornwall Street

Canmore ID 133343

Site Number NT27SW 1135

NGR NT 24887 73371

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/133343

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

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Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Edinburgh, City Of
  • Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District City Of Edinburgh
  • Former County Midlothian

Architecture Notes

ARCHITECT: Campbell and Arnott 1991

Traverse Theatre:

ARCHITECT: Nicholas Groves-Raines 1992

See also NT27SW 1121, 1122, 1132 and 1133.

Occupies the site of Edinburgh's notorious 'hole in the ground', a stretch of land at the heart of the city which lay derelict for over 25 years. Work began early 1988, following a competition run by Edinburgh District Council, attracting 22 submissions. In a public opinion poll following an exhibition of entries, 49% of Edinburgh citizens voted for the Campbell & Arnott design. Exterior is a sweeping colonnade following the curve of Castle Terrace. Design influenced by neighbouring Usher Hall and ornate tenements by Sir James Gowans. Main office entrance situated between two massive steel columns, leading to 5-storey high entrance hall with views to the Castle. Interior monochromatic, with natural steel and granite finishes. Entrance hall traversed by two high level steel bridges. Rotunda situated adjacent to Usher Hall, accessed across new pedestrianised square, housing restaurants and shops. New 250-seat Traverse Theatre occupies space beneath Drum. Natural stone cladding: Tarmac Masonry Products. Architectural metalwork: Shepley Dawson.

RIAS 1992

Activities

Project (1997)

The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (http://www.pmsa.org.uk/) set up a National Recording Project in 1997 with the aim of making a survey of public monuments and sculpture in Britain ranging from medieval monuments to the most contemporary works. Information from the Edinburgh project was added to the RCAHMS database in October 2010 and again in 2012.

The PMSA (Public Monuments and Sculpture Association) Edinburgh Sculpture Project has been supported by Eastern Photocolour, Edinburgh College of Art, the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, Historic Scotland, the Hope Scott Trust, The Old Edinburgh Club, the Pilgrim Trust, the RCAHMS, and the Scottish Archive Network.

Field Visit (1 February 2001)

A series of nine bronze rectangular reliefs on the curving pillars in the outer ring around the central Drum entrance, five inside and four outside:

Inside: (1) Law. A long rectangular bronze relief of two reclining male figures, bare-chested with loose drapery around their thighs, poring over a pile of law books, with their heads together. The figure on the left wears a turban, the end of it snaking down his back. The background is plain, with an inscription on a scroll at the far left.

(2) The Stage I. Two half-figures in close-up, back to back. On the right is a nude female, her left arm held high, and her head and arms cropped. On the left is a nude male bending over an open script held in his left hand.

(3) The Stage II. Two seated figures in close up. On the right a nude female, facing left, crouches on a chair; on the left a nude seated male wearing a headdress, gestures with his left hand and turns his head back towards the woman, while his torso faces left.

(4) Surgery. A male body lies prone, the viewer looking down on it. The arms are tight by the body's sides and feet are splayed.A selection of seven surgical instruments are spaced around the body: a saw, pincers, knives etc.

(5) Medicine. The centaur bends from left, over a reclining male, propped up on his right arm and receiving a plant from the centaur. Under the centaur's extended right arm is a pestle and mortar. Both figures are cropped in close-up.

Outside: (6) Paper-making. Two half-figures are back to back in the centre; the figure on the right turning a vertical lathe (?) and looking back to the centre over his right shoulder. The figure on the left looks down at a rectangular tray he holds in both hands over a vat. A millwheel is at the left edge.

(7) Printing. Two half-figures wearing aprons face right. The figure on the left holds open a large hand press with his right arm, and takes from it a sheet of paper with his left hand. The figure on the right bends over, his hair forward, with a buffing mallet (?) in his right hand and holding a lever in his left hand. To the right of him is the long angled handle of a printing press.

(8) Brewing. Two half-figures wearing aprons are back to back. The figure on the left lifts a barrel; behind is a cartwheel. The figure on the right stands in front of a long round-ended trough, and wields a mashing (?) paddle; behind are stalks of barley.

(9) Economics. A curvaceous female nude half-figure, seen from behind, shakes hands with a male figure at the right, across a sailing ship behind. At the left is an imposing building.

Inscriptions : On scroll at far left of Law relief (raised letters):

AN ORIGINAL AMALGAM OF ROMAN LAW, / FEUDAL LAW AND NATIVE CUSTOMARY LAW, / SYSTEMMATISED BY RESORT TO THE LAW / OF NATURE AND THE BIBLE, AND / ILLUMINATED BY MANY FLASHES. // LORD COOPER 1949 / SPEAKING ON THE / INSTITUTIONS OF THE / LAW OF SCOTLAND / BY LORD STAIR / 1881

On spines of two closed books at the centre of the Law relief (raised letters):

INSTITUTIONS OF THE / LAW OF SCOTLAND

VISCOUNT STAIR

Along bottom of The Stage I relief (raised letters):

WHILE IN ALL POINTS WITH OTHER LANDS SHE VIED, THE STAGE ALONE TO SCOTLAND / WAS DENIED. MISTAKEN ZEAL IN TIMES OF DARKNESS BRED O'ER THE BEST MINDS / ITS GLOOMY VAPOUR SPREAD, TASTE AND RELIGION WERE SUPPOS'D AT STRIFE

At bottom right corner of The Stage II relief (raised letters):

AND 'TWAS A SIN TO VIEW THE GLASS OF LIFE! / THIS NIGHT LOV'D GEORGE'S FREE ENLIGHTENED AGE / BIDS ROYAL FAVOUR SHIELD THE SCOTTISH STAGE / HIS ROYAL FAVOUR EV'RY BOSOM CHEERS, THE / DRAMA NOW WITH DIGNITY APPEARS. / JAMES BOSWELL 1767

At top left of Surgery relief (raised letters):

TIS THE CHIRURGEONS PRAISE / AND HEIGHT OF ART NOT TO / CUT OFF BUT CURE THE / VICIOUS PART / ROBERT HERRICK 1648

At bottom left of Surgery relief (raised letters):

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS EDINBURGH EST. 1505

At top right corner of Medicine relief (raised letters):

THE BOY ASKLEPIOS WHO BECAME THE GOD OF / MEDICINE WAS SNATCHED BY APOLLO FROM HIS / DEAD MOTHERS WOMB GIVEN TO THE CENTAUR / CHEIRON WHO RAISED HIM AND TAUGHT HIM THE / SECRETS OF MEDICINAL HERBS / ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS / EDINBURGH EST. 1631

On scroll at top, towards left, of Paper-making relief (raised letters):

I PRAISE THE MAN THAT / FIRST DID PAPER MAKE / THE ONELY THING THAT / SETS ALL VIRTUES FORTH

On scroll at top right of Paper-making relief (raised letters):

THEN HE THAT MADE / FOR US A PAPER MILL / IS WORTHY WELL OF / LOVE AND WORLDES / GOODWILL / THOMAS / CHURCHYARD / 1588

On vertical rectangular sheet at right of Printing relief (raised letters):

HE WHO FIRST SHORTENED / THE LABOUR OF COPYISTS BY / DEVICE OF MOVABLE TYPES / WAS DISBANDING HIRED / ARMIES. AND CASHIERING / MOST KINGS AND SENATES. / AND CREATING A WHOLE NEW / DEMOCRATIC WORLD / HE HAD INVENTED THE ART / OF PRINTING. / THOMAS CARLYLE / 1801-1881

Along bottom of Brewing relief (raised letters):

O'DOWIE'S ALE THOU ART THE THING, THAT GARS US CRACK THAT GARS US SING

At top left corner of Economics relief (raised letters):

NOBODY EVER SAW A DOG MAKE A FAIR AND DELIBERATE / EXCHANGE OF ONE BONE FOR ANOTHER WITH ANOTHER / DOG. NOBODY EVER SAW ONE ANIMAL BY ITS GESTURES / AND NATURAL CRIES SIGNIFY TO ANOTHER, THIS / IS MINE, THAT YOURS I AM WILLING TO GIVE / THIS FOR THAT / ADAM SMITH / THE WEALTH OF NATIONS / 1770

Design period : 1990-1991

Year of unveiling : 1991

Unveiling details : 7 October 1991

Information from Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA Work Ref : EDIN1550)

Field Visit (25 January 2010)

Fragments of glass sandblasted with linear patterns are attached behind a floor-to-ceiling open metal grid. Although the arrangement seems random, the fragments would form a rectangle if joined together.

The drawings on the glass derive from the artist's interest in geometry, mythology, and 'a good line'. The organic disorder of the fragments contrasts with the rigid order of the grid.

Commissioned by Scottish Metropolitan through Michael Grimes of Art for Interiors. The architects were Campbell and Arnott. The artist Danny Lane proposed an artwork suspended from the existing ironwork of the atrium.

Inscriptions : None

Signatures : Engraved in glass, bottom right corner (cursive script): Danny Lane / 1991

Design period : 1991

Year of unveiling : 1991

Unveiling details : 7 October 1991

Information from Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA Work Ref : EDIN1548)

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