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"Luxury hotel planned for Old Royal High School" (or music school?)

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  1. chdot
    Admin

    "

    DEVELOPERS behind a controversial bid to turn the old Royal High School into a luxury hotel have dramatically scaled down their proposals as they battle to win planning permission.

    "

    http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/our-region/edinburgh/hotel-developers-launch-drastic-bid-to-win-planning-permission-for-royal-high-1-4276654

    Posted 7 years ago #
  2. chdot
    Admin

    "

    Under our proposal the building will be fully protected and given a highly appropriate public purpose as a new home for Scotland’s national music school. Returning the building to its original use as a school, centred on a spectacular public concert hall, would provide a uniquely broad range of benefits to the City which cannot be replicated elsewhere.

    This building is one of the most important in Scotland and under the trust’s plan for St Mary’s Music School will draw in one of the biggest philanthropic gifts the country has ever seen. Where the hotel would build a five-storey glass block, our scheme provides a new public garden. It’s also worth remembering that the profits of the hotel would be returned to their headquarters overseas and not benefit the people of Scotland.

    William Gray Muir,

    Chairman, Royal High School Preservation Trust,

    46 Charlotte Square,

    Edinburgh.

    "

    http://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/14845565.New_Royal_High_plan_must_be_resisted

    Posted 7 years ago #
  3. chdot
    Admin

    "

    A HERITAGE body has called on developers to drop the latest hotel plans for the old Royal High School in favour of the rival scheme for the new home of St Mary’s Music School.

    A scaled-down version of the proposal for the A-listed building at Calton Hill was unveiled last week. But Adam Wilkinson, director of Edinburgh World Heritage, said: “The revised hotel proposals for the old Royal High School continue to be inappropriate for this world-class building. “

    The bedroom wings are too large for the setting of one of the three finest Greek Revival buildings in the world, compromising views of the building and the romantic idea of the countryside in the city intended in its siting and construction.

    "

    http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/our-region/edinburgh/city-centre/latest-royal-high-plans-still-unsuitable-says-heritage-body-1-4281026

    Posted 7 years ago #
  4. chdot
    Admin

  5. crowriver
    Member

    It does rather symbolise the crisis of this city that the only uses which can be imagined for this impressive building are a luxury hotel or a private school.

    Posted 7 years ago #
  6. chdot
    Admin

    This appears to be no longer on EN web site

    "

    Royal High planners duck Council and go to Holyrood

    DEVELOPERS bidding to turn the old Royal High School into a luxury hotel want the Scottish Government to step in and decide on the proposals.
    Duddingston House Properties Ltd and Urbanist Hotels Ltd have asked Ministers to “call in” their latest planning application, along with their appeal against refusal of an earlier version of the plan and a rival scheme to make the Calton Hill site a new home for St Mary’s Music School.
    In their letter to the government, the developers say: “Given the national importance of the RHS building and the need to secure its future, sustainable beneficial use,... read more

    "

    http://www.briefreport.co.uk/news/royal-high-planners-duck-council-and-go-to-holyrood-4795211.html

    Posted 7 years ago #
  7. chdot
    Admin

    "

    DEVELOPERS bidding to turn the old Royal High School into a luxury hotel have been accused of “Trump tactics” after they asked the Scottish Government to override the council and decide on the project.

    "

    http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/politics/edinburgh-developers-accused-of-trump-tactics-over-royal-high-1-4378611

    Posted 7 years ago #
  8. gembo
    Member

    Have you seen the boy living up the tree in the cowgat? He is protesting about the council selling India buildings (the tree is down the bacK of india buildings) to make a hotel. He is probably same person with the placards at that same spot about the corrupt council?

    Some irony in the fact that the council presumably planted the tree he is living in. I spotted his comrade winching in the supplies this morning.

    Posted 7 years ago #
  9. chdot
    Admin

    "

    ‪Elsewhere, on Calton Hill, developers Duddingston House Properties Ltd and hoteliers Urbanist Hotels Ltd have submitted their latest proposal to turn the long neglected former Royal High School into a luxury hotel. Their last proposal was rejected by CEC, while a counter proposal for St Mary’s Music School to take over the building was accepted. As long as Duddingston retain the lease on the building, however, which they have held since winning an open competition in 2010 (and which they claim gives them until 2022 to come up with an acceptable plan) the music school proposal cannot be acted upon. While Urbanist have claimed there will be arts provision for locals in the hotel plans, the best they are known to have come up so far was that they once hosted an arts awards ceremony in one of their London hotels, where cabaret acts have also performed.‬

    ‪Duddingston and Urbanist’s latest wheeze, according to the Edinburgh Evening News, is to have hired the same legal team which acted on behalf of US president Donald Trump when he succeeded in getting the plans for his Aberdeenshire golf course called in by the Scottish Government. Using these means, the two companies backing the hotel plans are hoping to bypass CEC entirely and do something similar with the Royal High.‬

    "

    http://www.productmagazine.co.uk/ideas/every-thing-must-go-2/

    Posted 7 years ago #
  10. chdot
    Admin

    "

    “Ministers are satisfied that the current applications are for the City of Edinburgh Council, as planning authority, to deal with and there is no reason for ministers to become involved at this time.”

    "

    http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/our-region/edinburgh/city-centre/ministers-refuse-to-call-in-royal-high-revamp-bids-1-4412713

    Posted 6 years ago #
  11. chdot
    Admin

    "

    Developers had told the Scottish Government that future use of the A-listed building on Calton Hill was of “national importance” and that the planning application should bypass the city council.

    But Nicholas Hotham of Edinburgh World Heritage said: “This is not only good news but also a reinforcement of democracy.”

    "

    http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/politics/scottish-government-rules-out-involvement-in-royal-high-plan-1-4413043

    Posted 6 years ago #
  12. chdot
    Admin

  13. chdot
    Admin

    "

    The developers behind the controversial luxury hotel planned for one of Edinburgh’s most celebrated landmarks have admitted it will be impossible to deliver the project without building major extensions on either side of it.

    One of the key figures spearheading the Rosewood developed earmarked for the old Royal High School on Calton Hill have admitted its internal spaces are totally unsuitable for hotel accommodation.

    "

    http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/royal-high-hotel-impossible-to-deliver-without-extensions-1-4460565

    Posted 6 years ago #
  14. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    For the first time ever I got selected to do a survey about this by IPSOS Mori. Rather partisan views expressed.

    Failed to disclose that the head of the Music School is a mate of mine.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  15. acsimpson
    Member

    For those who would like to hear some music in order to support the future of music:

    http://www.ahss.org.uk/events/fundraising-concert-reception/

    Save the RHS Fundraising Concert and Reception

    THURSDAY 8TH JUNE 2017

    Two world-class pianists: Malcolm Martineau and Steven Osborne with eminent soprano Lorna Anderson will perform works by Beethoven and Schubert...

    Posted 6 years ago #
  16. chdot
    Admin

  17. chdot
    Admin

    "

    One of Scotland's leading arts philanthropists has warned that turning Edinburgh's old Royal High School into a luxury hotel is a "red line" that should not be crossed for commercial interests.

    Carol Grigor, who has pledged to bankroll the creation of a new concert hall and music school in the Calton Hill landmark, has warned the city council that a looming decision on the proposed Rosewood hotel would "speak volumes" on how much value Edinburgh placed on culture, heritage and education.

    "

    http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/entertainment/red-line-warning-over-hotel-bid-for-edinburgh-s-old-royal-high-school-1-4537757

    Posted 6 years ago #
  18. chdot
    Admin

  19. chdot
    Admin

    "

    Four leading heritage groups have joined forces to warn that allowing one of Edinburgh’s prominent landmarks to be turned into a luxury hotel for “elite” travellers would damage forever the historic heart of the city.

    "

    http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/entertainment/heritage-groups-warn-heart-of-edinburgh-will-be-damaged-forever-by-new-hotel-1-4545627

    Posted 6 years ago #
  20. chdot
    Admin

    "
    One of the Capital’s most bitterly fought planning battles of recent years faces decision day on Thurday with claim and counterclaim ringing in the air.

    "

    http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/entertainment/city-council-to-make-decision-on-royal-high-school-s-fate-1-4546888

    Posted 6 years ago #
  21. chdot
    Admin

  22. chdot
    Admin

  23. Morningsider
    Member

    Yikes - the developers aren't messing about if they have Ann Faulds working on the case. She was Trump's Scottish planning lawyer and played an integral role in the unprecedented decision to get his golf course application called-in by Ministers, after a decision to refuse it had been made (but not formally issued) by Aberdeenshire Council.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  24. chdot
    Admin

    "the developers aren't messing about"

    Well they've put a lot of time/money into this.

    They have various precedents to look at to make them believe that SG will be sympathetic.

    The primary thing isn't 'hotel or music school'.

    It's partly about years of mismanagement by CEC (resulting in the developers being offered the RHS for almost nothing), plus pre-devolution manouverings by Labour which was unwilling to see it become the home of the Scottish Parliament.

    Additionally the developers keep proposing wing things that (to most people) look unattractive and would dominate the site.

    This is about far more than whether CEC councillors were/are 'right' to refuse planning permission.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  25. chdot
    Admin

  26. LivM
    Member

    We were there. It is as the article says. Let's hope seeds have been planted.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  27. chdot
    Admin

    They have warned swift action is needed to head off the prospect of the iconic Calton Hill building becoming home to a “cheap and cheerful” chain because plans for a luxury hotel on the site have attracted so much opposition.

    They have urged the local authority to lift the lid on a secret deal surrounding the A-listed landmark, which has been at the centre of huge controversy since designs for a “six-star hotel” on the site were revealed three years ago.

    http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/our-region/edinburgh/warning-over-budget-hotel-fears-for-royal-high-school-plans-1-4583330

    Posted 6 years ago #
  28. chdot
    Admin

  29. chdot
    Admin

  30. chdot
    Admin


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