Scottish Grand Committee meeting on 15th February 1982.
This photograph shows MPs who attended a meeting of the Scottish Grand Committee on this day in 1982.
The meeting was held in the The Old Royal High School at the bottom of Calton Hill on Regent Road in Edinburgh.
The Scottish Grand Committee is a Westminster committee composed of all Scottish MPs. It was set up in 1907 to consider the Committee Stage of exclusively Scottish bills.
It’s a sin that we still have no permanent use for this fine building.
After the Old Royal High School was closed in 1968, the building became available and was eventually refurbished to accommodate a new devolved legislature for Scotland. However, the 1979 devolution referendum was rigged to fail. Its debating chamber was later used for meetings of the Scottish Grand Committee. Subsequently, the building has been used as offices for departments of Edinburgh City Council, including The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award unit and the Sports and Outdoor Education unit.
With the passage of the Scotland Act 1998 and the introduction of Scottish devolution in 1999, the Old Royal High School was again mooted as a potential home for the new Scottish Parliament, but it was deemed unfit for this purpose and the Holyrood Parliament Building was built.
A number of uses have been suggested for the building, including a home for a Scottish National Photography Centre, there were plans submitted for it be made into a luxury hotel, which I am glad didn’t go ahead
The second pic is how it once looked.
Just last week it was announced it will host ten-day Hidden Door festival which brings a plethora of live music, art, dance, theatre and spoken word to otherwise neglected spaces every year, with the aim of resurrecting them to serve today's city dwellers.
Find out more about the festival and book tickets here https://hiddendoorarts.org/about/














