George Heriot’s School
George Heriot’s School has been a feature of Edinburgh for over 300 years, its clocktower clearly visible across the south of the city. But the founder of the school, often remembered today as ‘Jinglin Geordie’, has also left a legacy across the city.
As a young man George Heriot learned his father’s trade, and started business in the late 1500s as a jeweller with a ‘buith’ or small shop near St Giles’ Cathedral. His business grew until in 1597 he was appointed jeweller and goldsmith to Queen Anne. In 1601 Heriot took the same position for King James VI and when the court headed south to London a few years later he joined them.
However, despite his enormous wealth, his private life was unhappy. His first wife died shortly after his move to London, his second wife died after only a few years of marriage, and he had no children to inherit his fortune. Perhaps because of his experiences, he decided to found a hospital or school in his native city.
In his will he left £23,625 10s 3 1/2d for the building of the school, a small fortune in those days. Work began in 1628 under the supervision of William Wallace, the principal master mason to the crown. Unfortunately Wallace died only a few years later and building work continued in fits and starts. In 1650 the unfinished school was even used by Cromwell’s soldiers as a military hospital. But, in 1659 thirty schoolboys, dressed in the regulation sad-russet coat and black hat, finally took up residence.
The building you can see today has been altered over the years, but its overall appearance has changed little since the late 1600s, a stone quadrangle with four square corner towers and a clocktower. The north side was always intended to be the main entrance, deliberately facing out to the rest of the city. Set within the clocktower is an elaborately decorated doorway with four classical columns supporting four carved panels designed to show the origins of the school.
Today, George Heriot’s School is one of the great architectural treasures of the World Heritage Site, described by one historian as “…a palace indeed, its jackdaw invention transcended by the four-square magnificence of the whole.”
David Hicks is Communications Manager at Edinburgh World Heritage, a charity devoted to the city’s World Heritage Site. www.ewht.org.uk.
words ∙ David Hicks ∙ photo ∙ Susie Lowe