Royal High School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This page is about the Royal High School in Edinburgh. For the school in Bath, see Royal High School, Bath.
The Royal High School (RHS) in Edinburgh can trace its roots back to 1128, and is generally considered as the oldest school in Scotland and one of the oldest in Europe; it may even be one of the oldest surviving in the world. Initially associated with Holyrood Abbey, the school started life as an institution for the training of Franciscan monks. Although The Royal High School was a fee-paying independent school (UK) until the late 1970s, thereafter it was run by the City of Edinburgh Council.
It still demands respect and children that attend the school must wear uniform, which is supplied mainly by Aitkin & Niven. Pupils are largely from the EH4 postcode. The uniform today consists of a white shirt, official tie, school blazer, black trousers and black school shoes for boys. The girls uniform is white blouse, official tie, school blazer, black skirt/trousers and black shoes.
Previously an all-male private school, in 1974 it became a co-educational state comprehensive school. It houses approximately 1200 pupils from the Barnton, Cramond, Davidson's Mains, Blackhall, Cammo, Silverknowes and Clermiston suburbs of the city.
[edit] History of the Royal High School
Through the centuries, the Royal High School has been located at many sites throughout the city including Blackfriars, Infirmary Street, Jock's Lodge, the famous building on Calton Hill and its current site at Barnton, which it moved to in 1968.
Many of its pupils went on to make significant contributions to Scottish life, most famously Sir Walter Scott and Alexander Graham Bell. More recently other famous former pupils include Robin Cook MP and Ronnie Corbett the comedian.
The school has two flourishing Former Pupils clubs: The Royal High School Club (Edinburgh) and The Royal High School Club in London (RHSCL).
[edit] The building on Calton Hill
The neo-classical Calton Hill building, dating from 1829 and designed by Thomas Hamilton was long considered as a home for the Scottish Parliament. The building was converted in anticipation of the 1979 Scotland referendum, with a debating chamber built, but the referendum failed due to a rule requiring the support of 40% of the entire electorate. Following the successful referendum in 1997 it was considered again, until Donald Dewar eventually chose the Holyrood site for the Scottish Parliament Building, supposedly due to fears of the building being a Nationalist shibboleth.
As of 2004 there are proposals to convert the building into the Scottish National Photography Centre, which is seen as an appropriate site for such a centre, given its proximity to the former studio of Robert Adamson and David Octavius Hill.
