St James Quarter
Royal Week
At the Compass Gallery
Jacobean Miniatures at The Scottish National Gallery
Edinburgh student wins cash prize on graduation
TH Real Estate has been granted planning permission by the City of Edinburgh Council for its £850m mixed-use Edinburgh St James scheme. This pivotal decision marks a major milestone for this transformational development, which is one of the largest regeneration projects currently underway in the UK.
The City of Edinburgh Council Planning Committee has approved Primary Reserved Matters, Secondary Reserved Matters and a John Lewis detailed application for the 1.7 million sq ft (157,935 sq m) development project.
The approved designs, by Edinburgh-based Allan Murray Architects, will involve the replacement of the 1970s shopping centre currently on site by 750,000 sq ft (69,677 sqm) of retail space, a luxury hotel, up to 250 new homes, 30 restaurants and a multi-screen cinema.
The developers hope that planning permission for the scheme’s luxury hotel will be granted when the design goes before the City of Edinburgh Council later this summer. As the centrepiece of Edinburgh St James, this iconic building will affirm Edinburgh’s position as a global destination and is already attracting the attention of major international hotel brands. Overlooking St James Square and creating a new landmark building for the city, the hotel will include up to 210 beds and will feature restaurants, bars and a rooftop terrace at uppermost levels.
Looking further ahead, subject to the successful resolution of the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) scheduled for September, the project team is working towards a January vacant possession of the St James Centre, to enable demolition works to begin onsite in early 2016. Edinburgh St James is anticipated to complete in 2020.
Martin Perry, Director of Development, TH Real Estate, commented:
“We are absolutely delighted that the City of Edinburgh Council has backed our vision for Edinburgh St James. We are now focused on the next phase of our plans for this landmark development – providing Edinburgh with a brand new, vibrant and exciting place to live, visit and shop in the heart of the city.”
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This is Royal Week and Her Majesty the Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh are in residence at the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
The Edinburgh Reporter was down that way yesterday where many people had attended the investiture ceremony inside the palace. Dame Sue Bruce was made DBE in the New Year Honours List but had waited till now to receive the honour formally.
The Edinburgh Reporter NEWS from Phyllis Stephen on Vimeo.
We also met up with Bruce Minto who was awarded OBE for services to culture. Mr Minto is one of the founding partners of the Edinburgh based legal firm Dickson Minto but he was also appointed Chairman of the Board of Trustees of National Museums Scotland in August 2012.
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The annual New Generation Show at the Compass Gallery presents a variety of carefully selected graduate work, from the four Scottish Art Schools: Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Edinburgh College of Art, Glasgow School of Art and Gray’s School of Art. The exhibition demonstrates our continuing commitment to recognising and supporting each new generation at this important and exciting start of their professional development.
A spokesman for the gallery said: “We are always struck by the creative ideas, energy and skills of those on the threshold of their future career and this year’s selection is no different.”
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Two exquisite portraits of Bonnie Prince Charlie (1720-88) and his brother Prince Henry Benedict Stuart (1725-1807) will be among the highlights of a major new exhibition which opens at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh this week. Jean-Étienne Liotard brings together some 50 portraits by one of the most sophisticated, witty and innovative artists of the eighteenth century. The two stunning portraits of the Stuart brothers, which were commissioned in Rome by their father James Stuart, ‘The Old Pretender’, have never before been exhibited in Scotland.
Although now largely unknown in Britain, the artist who painted them, Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-89), was a much-celebrated figure in the age of Mozart and Casanova. Born in Geneva, he was an adventurous traveller, hugely skilled both as an artist and as a self-publicist, and enjoyed a long and prolific career working in the major cities and courts of Europe.
For the exiled Stuart court in Rome, portraits were politically important – a means of keeping the Jacobite cause alive among its sympathisers. In 1737James commissioned from Liotard pastel portraits of his sons (now lost), as well as a series of miniatures, which were copied by other artists and sent to European Jacobite groups across Europe. Among these were the two portraits on show, in which Henry, aged 12, wears the blue riband, and 16-year-old Charles the star and riband of the Order of the Garter. The microscopically detailed portraits are painted in watercolour and gouache on vellum (calf skin), and measure just 7 x 5.5 cm. Like many of Liotard’s works, they have always remained in private hands and so are little known. They have been generously lent to the Liotard exhibition by a private european collection, courtesy of Tomasso Brothers Fine Art Ltd.
JEAN-ÉTIENNE LIOTARD
4 July – 13 September 2015
SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERY, The Mound, Edinburgh EH2 2EL
Admission £9/£7 | 0131 624 6200
nationalgalleries.org
#NGSLiotard
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Patrick Orr has been awarded the Harold Collier Bursary and collected the prize at a graduation ceremony held at the University of Glasgow last week. Patrick who is from Edinburgh won the prize which was founded in 1988 by the bequest of Edward Collier MB, ChB 1928. It is presented annually to the best male graduate of the year in the College of Arts.
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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
