Playfair's Temples: Scottish National Gallery & Royal Scottish Academy
Why is it significant?
Stand between the two temples at the foot of the Mound and compare them. The one nearer Princes Street, with heavy Doric columns and a statue of Queen Victoria on its roof, is the Royal Scottish Academy.
Key Facts
| Place | Playfair's Temples: Scottish National Gallery & Royal Scottish Academy |
|---|---|
| Address | The Mound, Edinburgh EH2 2EL, UK |
| Geo Coordinates | 55.95090, -3.19560 |
| Part of Walk | Painted, Carved and Planted: Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens and the Mound |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand between the two temples at the foot of the Mound and compare them. The one nearer Princes Street, with heavy Doric columns and a statue of Queen Victoria on its roof, is the Royal Scottish Academy. The one behind, with lighter Ionic columns and long blind walls, is the Scottish National Gallery. Both are by one architect, William Henry Playfair, the man who did most to make Edinburgh the Athens of the North.
The front one came first, in the 1820s, built as the Royal Institution for the city's learned societies, and later handed to the Academy. The Gallery was begun in 1850, when Prince Albert laid its foundation stone, and opened in 1859. Its side walls have no windows for a good reason: the paintings inside were meant to be lit from above, without glare.
Inside are some of the best-loved pictures in Scotland. A minister in a black coat skates gracefully across Duddingston Loch, a little painting long credited to Henry Raeburn, though some experts have doubted it, and it has become an icon of the Scottish Enlightenment. There is Vermeer's earliest known painting, Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, and Canova's marble Three Graces, owned jointly with London's Victoria and Albert Museum.
The two temples are secretly joined. In 2004 a link was dug beneath the gardens, with galleries, a lecture theatre and a café, so that you can pass from one building to the other without seeing daylight. Deeper still, the trains you watched from Waverley Bridge rumble through tunnels in the Mound itself.
And there is a quiet irony under your feet. The Mound is not a natural hill at all, but an enormous heap of soil and rubble. Walk up the Mound road beside the galleries, following its curve uphill, to the domed palace at the top, and you will hear how it was made. It is a steady climb, so take your time.