The School's new home is in the West wing of
a Grade A, listed building located at Teviot
Place. It forms part of a large Venetian
Cinquecento complex designed by Robert Rowand
Anderson in 1874. The buildings are designed
around two courtyards with a tower at the
West end, and at the East end the base of
an uncompleted San-Marco-type campanile.
In 1874, when the site had been purchased
and a public appeal launched, Robert Rowand
Anderson won the competition to select an
architect. He had toured England and the
Continent to study the latest designs, and
his emphasis throughout was on the practical
requirements of the interior of the building,
with the exterior adapted to the interior
so that, for example, symmetry was not a
constraint and blank walls were left as
such where no windows were required. For
this he chose a 'Cinquecento' Italian Renaissance
style.
The Medical School was designed around
two courts, with a grand public quadrangle
at the front and a second private yard entered
from the lane behind for the discreet delivery
of cadavers to the dissection rooms. Work
started in 1878, with the first few departments
completed in 1880 and the rest in time for
The University’s lavish Tercentenary
celebrations in April 1884, attended by
Louis Pasteur, Rudolf Wirchow, Joseph Lister,
Lord Kelvin and a galaxy of the great and
the good from around the world.
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