Forsyth Building Detail - Edinburgh
by Yvonne Johnstone
Title
Forsyth Building Detail - Edinburgh
Artist
Yvonne Johnstone
Medium
Photograph - Digitally Enhanced Photograph
Description
Built as R W Forsyth's flagship store, (Architect - Sir John James Burnet), it was the first fully steel-framed building in Scotland.
6-storey with corner tower Free-style Renaissance.
Polished cream sandstone ashlar. Shop windows at ground and marble Ionic columns at 1st floor, framed by flat proscenium arch.
Channelled rustication at 2nd floor with consoled band above.
Giant Ionic columns to 3rd and 4th floors with windows running through both floors between.
Projecting cornice with balustraded parapet to eaves gallery at 5th floor with term figures by W Birnie Rhind and W Reid Dick.
Corner tower with Mannerist aedicules at 2nd floor, simpler aedicules at 5th floor, and balustraded parapet with urns; octagonal cupola with pyramidal roof surmounted by gilded openwork sphere by Gilbert Bayes. The intricate 3-tonne steel sphere displays the signs of the zodiac flanked by cherubic figures.
Forsyth's closed in the 1970s, and the building was sold to the Burton Group. The upper floors are leased to Travelodge as 100 bed hotel.
Uploaded
February 3rd, 2021
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Viewed 1,317 Times - Last Visitor from Ottawa, ON - Canada on 03/29/2024 at 3:03 AM
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