Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders
Date 2007
Event ID 590532
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/590532
In 1859–60, as architect of the Science and Art Department of the Government and after having acted as engineer and architect of the South Kensington Museum, Capt. Francis Fowke, RE, designed the new Industrial Museum of Scotland at Chambers Street, the first stone of which was laid by the Prince Consort in October 1861. Its design is reminiscent of the Great Exhibition Building of 1851.The east wing and the eastern part of the main hall were opened to the public as the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1866, the remainder not being completed until 1875. A particularly attractive feature is the main hall, about 60 ft high. Its overarching roof is not made of iron as is sometimes thought, but of timber, supported on ornamental cast-iron columns. [43
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.
