Royal Scottish Academy Building

The Royal Scottish Academy Building stands in central Edinburgh where The Mound meets Princes Street. Designed by William Henry Playfair between 1822 and 1826, it is a neo-classical stone structure built to house three cultural bodies. The building’s Doric columns and sculpted pediments recall a Greek temple. Queen Victoria appears as Britannia on the north portico, and carved stone sphinxes guard each corner. In 1911 the Academy took full possession and renamed the building, which remains a Category A listed landmark. The Academy’s history began in 1821 when the Scottish Board of Manufactures proposed shared accommodation. Playfair drove 2,000 piles into the marshy ground above the old Nor Loch to stabilise the foundations. Artists broke away in 1826 to form the Scottish Academy, later receiving a royal charter in 1838. In 1859 the new National Gallery next door allowed the Academy to display its growing collection of Old Master paintings. After relocations in the late 19th century, the Academy returned in 1910 and remodelled the interior in 1911–12. Visitors find a rectangular sandstone temple surrounded by fluted Doric columns. Inside, galleries on the upper level hold temporary exhibitions organised with the National Galleries of Scotland. The restored railings and traditional lamps set the building apart from the public gardens. Below ground, a new link connects the Academy to the Scottish National Gallery, creating a single arts complex with an entrance in Princes Street Gardens.