George Street Hall

The architectural history of the College’s George Street hall, completed in 1781, has commonly been overlooked because it was demolished and deemed to have been a disappointment to both its owners and its architect, James Craig. The hall was actually intended to be part of a larger complex of buildings and rival Register House as the New Town’s most impressive public edifice.

Background

Before James Craig began work to plan and build the College’s hall and library between 1775 and 1776, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh had indicated the extent of its ambitions with a series of aborted building projects between the 1750s and the 1770s, including a design by Sir James Clerk of Penicuick.

Clerk’s plan represented Rome’s Pantheon, and was intended to house meetings, a library and resident librarian, rooms for reading and research, consultations and waiting together with servants’ quarters, at the northern terminus of the new bridge over the Nor Loch. Designed in 1765, it was intended to be the New Town’s first public building. However, between 1767 and 1771, the College was asked to vacate this site for Register House. In response, the College first considered planning a new hall, library, cold bath and garden in the Old Town, but finally opted to relocate Clerk’s Pantheon complex to another New Town site on the south side of Princes Street – a project that was abandoned by 1773.

The George Street Hall

In 1778 the College resumed its intention to build a new hall and library in the New Town, selecting a site on the south side of George Street and the architect James Craig as its designer. The intention was for art to be integrated into the building, with both the exterior and interior decorated with sculptures and paintings and for two large wings to be built to the east and west of the main building. The College had its choice ratified by Robert and John Adam, as well as Edinburgh Town Council.

Craig was already famous for planning the New Town, and was known to the College’s members and patrons. Among his friends, admirers and patrons were Sir Alexander Dick, Sir John Pringle, Dr John Hope and Dr William Cullen as well as the Earl of Bute, the Duke of Buccleuch and even King George III, who had approved of his New Town plan.