The Old and the New

The 7 year renovation and refurbishment of the old Edinburgh Royal Infirmary is complete and it has transmogrified into  Edinburgh University’s Institute of the Futures. It is now accessible to the public and I entered this morning via the café and restaurant situated beside the old Accident and Emergency entrance which in itself evokes memories best forgotten. The café itself was quiet and strangely impersonal , not for me a cosy space, but will benefit once more people know about it. 

The whole building is vast and if the old hospital was difficult to navigate then this new version would seem to be much the same. I had visions of being lost in the corridors should I wander off piste so I kept in a straight line to find my way out to the main drive into Quartermile.

I came upon this main staircase  which I imagine was the one  at the old main entrance to the hospital. I was interested in my reaction at seeing something so familiar and so authentically part of the building’s past life but in a different setting.