Edinburgh, West Mains Road, King's Buildings, Murchison House

The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (http://www.pmsa.org.uk/) set up a National Recording Project in 1997 with the aim of making a survey of public monuments and sculpture in Britain ranging from medieval monuments to the most contemporary works. Information from the Edinburgh project was added to the RCAHMS database in October 2010 and again in 2012.

The PMSA (Public Monuments and Sculpture Association) Edinburgh Sculpture Project has been supported by Eastern Photocolour, Edinburgh College of Art, the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, Historic Scotland, the Hope Scott Trust, The Old Edinburgh Club, the Pilgrim Trust, the RCAHMS, and the Scottish Archive Network.

Portriat bust of Murchison in contemporary clothing, wearing decorations, sited on a marble pedestal upon fluted column and plinth.

The work was transferred to its present site at the instigation of a former Director of the British Geological Survey.

The column pedestal was formerly sited at the entrance to the Geology section of the Royal Scottish Museum. The loan of the plinth was arranged by Andrew A. McMillan, Principal Geologist, BGS HQ Edinburgh.

Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871), served in the Napoleonic Wars and afterwards pursued a career in science. During the 1830s he undertook the investigation of previously undifferentiated rock strata in Wales and England; as a result of his researches he established the Silurian as a new geologic system and described it in The Silurian System (2 vol. in 1, 1839). With Adam Sedgwick he collaborated on the establishment of the Devonian system, and after carrying on an extended survey in Russia (1840-1844) he also defined and named the Permian period. His last investigations were directed toward the geology of the Scottish Highlands. In 1846 he was knighted, and in 1855 he was appointed director general of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. Murchison endowed a chair of geology and mineralogy at the University of Edinburgh. He revised and modified the material of his earlier work in Siluria (1854) and collaborated on the Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains (1845). (2)

Inscriptions : On pedestal supporting bust (inscribed letters):

RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON BART., K.C.B, F.R.S, & C. / SECOND DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND OF THIS MUSEUM

Signatures : On rear of bust:

H. WEEKES. R.A. / SC. 1871

Design period : 1871

Notes : Note that although the BGS HQ occupies a site within the King's Buildings campus it is a private institution and is therefore not associated with the University of Edinburgh. All enquiries for access etc should be made direct to the BGS.

Information from Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA Work Ref : EDIN0086)

A cultural heritage desk based assessment for the proposed redevelopment focused on the Geosciences Buildings and Engineering Buildings, King's Buildings, University of Edinburgh was undertaken in August 2016. The proposed development site is located at the west extent of the King's Buildings Campus in the south of Edinburgh centred on NGR NT 26466 70599. The proposed development comprises redevelopment of the Geosciences and Engineering buildings within the King's Buildings Campus.

Information from Callum Allsop (Rubicon Heritage Services) 11 August 2016: OASIS ID: rubiconh1-261722

AOC Archaeology Group was commissioned by the University of Edinburgh to undertake an archaeological watching brief at Murchison House to the north-west corner of the King's Buildings Campus, West Mains Road, University of Edinburgh. A single area to the east of Murchison House were observed as part of the archaeological watching brief. No archaeological finds or features were exposed.

Information from Diana Sproat (AOC Archaeology Group), June 2017.

OASIS ID: aocarcha1-288529

NT 26410 70742 A historic building survey and watching brief were undertaken, 26 June 2017 – 14 May 2018, of Murchison House to the NW corner of the King’s Buildings Campus, West Mains Road, in advance of renovation of the building and landscaping works.

Murchison House was constructed 1971 – 77 to a design by Allan Pendreigh and is a five-storey post-modernist university building constructed initially for the Natural Environment Research Council, although it most recently housed the geology department of the University of Edinburgh. A five-storey H--plan building in pale yellow brick throughout, the building has little changed since its construction with the exception of the windows which were largely replaced in the 1990s with larger metal-framed windows.

Archive: NRHE (intended)

Funder: University of Edinburgh

Diana Sproat – AOC Archaeology Group

(Source: DES Vol 19)

OASIS ID: aocarcha1-288529