Architecture Notes

Event ID 863676

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Architecture Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/863676

The Construction of John Sinclair House:

The pressure on city-centre office space in recent years has resulted in the conversion of many buildings previously used for quite different purposes. The RCAHMS offices were converted from a furniture depository.

Originally constructed in 1936 by J R Mackay as storage for furniture specialists C & J Brown, the original building stood four storeys high and its Thirties style was expressed by strong horizontal window bays and a steel internal structure with spacious, concrete-floored storage areas (see drawings DPM 1930/10/3-5).

The firm closed the depository in the 1980s, and developers McAlpine Lang acquired the building in 1988. The Edinburgh-based architects J & F Johnston & Partners designed the new building and the contract was overseen by PSA Projects (see drawings JFJ 1980/1/1-23). The work, which was carried out in 1990-91, included the addition of a new frontage to the building, bringing it up to the building-line of the rest of Bernard Terrace, as well as a lower addition to the east side which occupies the site of a redundant farm building.

The main block preserves much of its original structure, but in addition to office accommodation, the conversion included the creation of climate-controlled stores, a conservation studio and photographic processing facilities. The important public role of the building is particularly reflected in the welcoming, open-plan layout of its archive and Search Room, which is open to the public from Tuesday to Friday, 9:30am to 5pm.

(Information from Architecture Catalogue Team 2000)

On this site stood the stables that housed circus elephants, when the circus came to Waverley Market.

(Verbal information from visitors to RCAHMS Search Room, 1998).