New plans for Panmure House and City Observatory in Edinburgh

Edinburgh World Heritage has announced plans to help create a 'sustainable' future for the city's A-listed Panmure House and City Observatory. Both historic buildings will feature in an Edinburgh World Heritage funded Conservation Statement which will be used to help bring the structures back into use, set out conservation policies and assess the significance of the buildings.

Panmure House

Panmure House is a 17th-century town mansion in Edinburgh's Canongate, once the home of Wealth of the Nations author Adam Smith. A project by Edinburgh Business School hopes to make the building into an 'international centre' for economics, teaching and research, with a reading room and lecture theatre.

City Observatory

Edinburgh's City Observatory (pictured) is a distinctive domed building designed by William Playfair and completed in 1822 for the Astronomical Institution. The purpose-built observatory, which once provided a time check for both Edinburgh and the nearby port of Leith, is currently unoccupied and in need of repair, but plans are in place for the Collective Gallery to use the building, with two exhibition rooms and an outdoor events space proposed in the report.

To find out more about Edinburgh World Heritage and its projects, visit the website.

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(Image copyright Kim Traynor, Geograph Project)

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