45


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neo-gothic façades of red sandstone dwarfed the street below. Inside, the spacious and handsomely decorated galleries rivalled the most advanced art galleries in Europe and America, and crowds flocked to see them. A hundred years later and the gallery’s fortunes had changed


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considerably. Visitor numbers had dwindled, with many people put off by the dimly lit, enclosed galleries, endless rows of por- traits hung against now outdated dark fabric walls, and ill thought out circulation that forced visitors to either cram into a tiny lift, or climb to the upper floors via several flights of stairs. Things deteriorated so badly that by the mid-1990s the gallery tottered on the brink of closure, until plans to transfer key art- works to another gallery sparked outrage among local people. Fast forward to today, and the Scottish National Portrait


Gallery is in the final stages of a £18.6 million overhaul intended to strip out the decades of architectural clutter, increase gallery space by around 60 per cent and ultimately boost annual visitor numbers by half, from 200,000 to 300,000. To complete the work, main contractor BAM Construct has


effectively switched professions to become a hi-tech removal company, clearing out antiquities stores and stripping out unsightly 20th century additions such as M&E services and false ceilings to create brand new gallery spaces, even dismantling and transferring an entire double-height mahogany library to the opposite side of the building. BAM construction manager Jeff Thornton explains the strat-


egy: “The main aim was to open up large areas of the building that had been left unused... It’s a heavily serviced building and prior to our involvement all the services were on show; cables, conduits, cable trays, visible pipes in galleries etc. It was pretty utilitarian. We’ve put in a totally new M&E kit, virtually every single cable was changed.” The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is the brainchild of


architect Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, who designed it to mimic the beautiful Doge’s palace in Venice. Symmetrical in lay- out, the building is accessed via a central entrance on the main thoroughfare of Queen Street. Upon entering, visitors face a grand double-height Main Hall located at the centre of the building, which features a famous processional frieze depicting many famous Scots including Robert Burns, David Hume and Robert the Bruce. The rest of the building stretches out sym- metrically on either side of the Main Hall and is arranged over three floors.


hen it opened in 1889, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery must have been quite a spectacle. Located on a hill overlooking Edinburgh, the building’s grand,


continued on page 46


The entire mahogany-paneled library was cut up and reassembled on the opposite side of the building


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