Filmhouse, Impact Concert Hall and Royal High music school plan may have one thing in common – John McLellan

Architect Richard Murphy’s revised grand design for a new Filmhouse in Festival Square might have had a couple of storeys knocked off, but let’s just say the jury is very much out on the concept of an open-air rooftop cinema in a country where the prevailing weather is usually on a scale from drookit to dreich.

The proposed new home for the Filmouse and the Edinburgh International Film Festival (Picture: Richard Murphy Architects)

A bit of atmosphere for Singin’ in the Rain, the Revenant or The Ten Commandments perhaps, but if al fresco viewing was going to be a thing it would have happened years ago. There was a reason they started putting roofs on theatres after Shakespeare’s Globe burnt down.

Still, it’s hard to harm the bleak 1950s’ Eastern Europe feel of the square, a stark contrast to the impact of the Castle looking down on the compact grandeur of the Usher Hall. With heights dictated by the nearby Standard Life and Scottish Widows buildings, the main barrier is likely to be cash.

Money is always a problem for complex “visionary” projects in difficult locations where the chances of a strong return isn’t guaranteed, as the backers of the Impact Concert Hall behind St Andrew Square are finding out.

And judging by the expensive fund-raising brochure distributed free to Edinburgh homes on behalf of the Royal High School Preservation Trust this week, the backers of St Mary’s Music School’s flit to Calton Hill have a job on their hands to raise the loot too.

Featuring a new poem by Alexander McCall Smith, at least they know their market.

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