How are the mighty fallen...

This detail from the Old Royal High School off Regent Road in Edinburgh could equally be the crumbling paintwork of the doorway of an old abandoned country cottage or derelict farm building. Only the mighty stones around the portico give clues to its original 19th century purpose as a grand neo-classical academy of education. 

The building has remained vacant since before I came to Edinburgh over 40 years ago. It has various plans mooted for its eventual re-use. It was going to be the parliamentary building for the ill-fated devolved assembly of 1979 which failed to gain sufficient electoral support. When the final devolved assembly came to fruition in 1997 a new parliament building was proposed. 

Since then there have been plans for a photography museum (which I very much favoured) but Lottery Funding did not materialise, a luxury hotel and a renovated building for St. Mary's School of Music. The current plans are for a much scaled down luxury hotel but this is being resisted by preservationist groups since such a modern development could jeopardise Edinburgh's status as a UNESC Heritage site. In the meantime Edinburgh Council have agreed plans for the the St. Mary's development but the the hotel developers are loathe to give up their ideas of a luxury hotel and have a contract giving sole right of use of the site until 2022. And so it goes on and on.... Meantime the paint keeps crumbling.