Dear Spurtle
Edinburgh City Council has two options before it.
The hotel option requires bulky new bedroom blocks, one in particular intruding into important views of Calton Hill and the School. This will spoil unique historic monuments of national importance which are why Edinburgh has World Heritage City status. The hotel scheme will also remove the chance of restoring Grade A Listed interiors to uses sympathetic to their original design and civic purpose.
The St Mary's Music School option will retain these views, enhance this character, and return the interiors to sympathetic use. This fully funded proposal should have every councillor's support.
There are plenty of locations for hotels which do not involve compromising key elements essential to the city's character, a character of critical importance to its attractiveness as a tourist destination and as a place to live and work.
The Council has a responsibility not to kill its - our - golden goose.
Paul Harding
(paulhardingriba@btinternet.com)
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Alastair Wright I don't see the new bedroom blocks as intruding, indeed I see them as very sympathetic. I think concern (and resource) for Edinburgh's World Heritage status should be focused elsewhere ... there's plenty of other proposals which give legitimate concern.
Marta Mcglynn In terms of Edinburgh's World heritage status, the RHS is of paramont importance. It is significant in a National ( UK ) context, not just locally in Edinburgh. It is also an integral part of the assemblage of buildings on the Calton Hill that have earned Edinburgh its accolade of 'The Athens of the North' I cannot think of any way in which the bedroom blocks are sympathetic - Form ( no ) scale ( no ) proportion ( no) treatment of light and shadow ( no ) roofscape ( no )