Edinburgh, 33 Ellersly Road, United Distillers Headquarters

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.

Four petal-shaped curving forms are suspended from two crossing curved steel beams in a large cuboid space above the reception desk in the entrance foyer. Points of the forms (clear glass fragments in steel frames) can just be seen on entering the building. From the balcony above, the green glass curved tops can be seen close up.

Each fragment of glass is selected from half a ton of broken plate glass and wine bottles, and is bound to the grid structure of the petal forms with wire (by hand).

The design / construction period in 2000 consisted of three months designing and three months fabricating, including full-scale wicker models.

The forms relate to the process of brewing, from hop flowers to empty beer bottles. The work combines references to the organic - petal shapes, 'leafy glade' effect - and the inorganic - grid and support structures of both architecture and company structure. The hand-bound individual fragments underline the role of the individual within the corporate whole. With directed lighting and reflections on the surrounding marble, the sculpture animates the space.

Inspected By : Dianne King

Inscriptions : None

Signatures : None

Design period : 2000

Notes : Phone conversation with David Parker, Bldgs Manager of S & N, 14/04/08. Sculpture sold with the building to new owners (with no conditions)

Unveiling details : 31 October 2000 (sculpture installed) / 20 November 2000 (Building opened)

Information from Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA Work Ref : EDIN0610)

In a newly created niche in the long stone Corstorphine wall, the two bronze figures of Alan Breck Stewart and David Balfour look down over the street from a rubble stone cairn into which is set a larger than lifesize profile medallion of Robert Louis Stevenson. Open ironwork portrait vignettes in the railings either side of the cairn represent Prince Charles Edward Stuart (left) and King George II (right). The two figures stand side by side, each with the left foot slightly forward. On the left, Alan Breck wears a tricorn hat, coat and long waistcoat and thigh-length boots coming apart at the left toe which overhangs the plinth. A decorated pistol is tucked in at his waist. His left hand rests on the basket hilt of his sword, while his right hand holds up the cross talisman he made in the wood above Loch Leven to convey an important message to an illiterate kinsman. The lined face looks brooding. The young David Balfour stands bare-headed, hair swept straight back as he gazes into the distance. He wears a coat, breeches and ribbed hose, his right hand touching a fringed plaid hanging in folds at his right shoulder. The other end of the plaid loops around his left forearm. His left hand curls towards his belt buckle, below which hangs a money pouch. Like his companion, he wears a basket-hilted sword at his left side, the sword belt worn diagonally across the body.

In the high relief portrait medallion, Stevenson faces left and wears a shirt and tie with a jacket collar. The portrait is framed by a circle of long stones fanning outwards.

A short curve of black pointed railings either side connects the sculpture to the finialed pillars of the stone wall.

Sandy Stoddart was approached by Scottish & Newcastle to produce a statue to mark the company's move, in 1999, to the new headquarters in Ellersly Road.

According to Stoddart, Robert Louis Stevenson's frame and bearing were not appropriate to immortalise in a statue; indeed Stevenson was not a fan of public sculpture. Instead Stoddart represents Stevenson through one of his best-loved novels 'Kidnapped'. The site of Scottish & Newcastle's headquarters is apt for this sculpture, not only because Corstorphine Hill features in the novel, but because it is on the road between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Stoddart explains: 'The dualism of the group - Highlander and Lowlander, Jacobite and Whig, mature man and youth, swordsman and pen-man, fact and fiction - resolves in a dualism suggested by the work's placing, between Glasgow and Edinburgh, in which many of the above oppositions find civic representation. The opposition between the two cities, as tedious as it is pernicious, is symbolically neutralised in this monument.' (Quoted in The Herald, 10 September 2003, p.3).

Alan Breck Stewart and David Balfour are the central characters in Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Kidnapped' (published in 1886), which was set in the aftermath of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. Stewart is a romantic Highlander who is trying to escape Scotland and go into exile in France; Balfour a Lowland teacher's son attempting to reclaim his inheritance. The siting of the memorial relates to the story: the two men bade farewell on Corstorphine Hill.

Prince Charles Edward Stuart and George II were the two political protagonists in the 1745 Rebellion.

Inscriptions : On medallion, to left of profile, following the curve of the outer circle (inscribed Roman letters): 1850 . ROBERT . LOVIS . 1894 / STEVENSON

Signatures : On medallion, below collar (inscribed Roman letters): STODDART

On medallion, to right of head (inscribed letters): PAISLEY . 2003

Year of unveiling : 2004

Information from Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA Work Ref : EDIN0315)

NT 22018 73240 (centred on) A desk-based assessment and Level 2 standing building survey were undertaken in January 2010 of Balfour Stewart House prior to its demolition. The building, designed by RMJM, was constructed in 1984 as the headquarters for the Distillers Company. The building was purchased in 2000 by Scottish and Newcastle, became vacant in 2006 and was demolished in February 2010.

Archive: RCAHMS

Funder: RSK Environment Ltd on behalf of Northern Trust Ltd

Amanda Gow and Tom Parnell – Addyman Archaeology