October 2 2023

A new basement gallery below the Playfair-designed National Gallery of Scotland has opened, providing a new home for historic homegrown art.

The Scottish Collection Gallery on the Mound sits below the Classical facade of the Edinburgh landmark, sweeping aside claustrophobic office space and outdated galleries in favour of a spacious new volume with panoramic views across Princes Street Gardens.

Existing windows to the mound-level galleries have also been unblocked to enhance this effect, encouraging visitors to make the descent, aided by a complementary south stair. A picture lift has also been installed for moving art and people efficiently.

Connecting directly to the Weston Link, created in 2004 by John Miller and Partners, the new space doubles available display space for Scottish art and introduces a feature top-lit staircase connecting to the existing A-listed galleries, the top of which serves as a main hub and starting point. Framed by a picture window overlooking the gardens the space helps to orientate the building within the landscape.

Emphasising space, accessibility and wayfinding the wider works include a reconfigured concourse to accommodate a shop and restaurant with extensive landscaping work sees stone markers signpost the gallery from the gardens while existing steps connecting to Princes Street have been widened and ramped access within the gardens introduced.

The complex undertaking involved reconfiguring concrete substructures to simplify floor space, all while avoiding disruption to the Waverley rail tunnels below.

3 Comments

#1 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 3 Oct 2023 at 09:58 AM

The great vampire squid that is the Auld Reekie establishment takes another chunk out of the shrinking budgets of Civic Scotland and tarts up a basement for the benefit of its tourist industry.

Incredible that devolved Scotland has been all about centralisation -- one winner in Auld Reekie with many losers.

Not good.

#2 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 3 Oct 2023 at 09:59 AM

Auld Reekie isn't very good at producing the art but it is world class at wringing the cloth dry to its own advantage.

#3 Posted by Disabled Rights Advocate on 3 Oct 2023 at 12:43 PM

Genuine question - does it have a Changing Places toilet? And if not, why not?

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