Scottish National Gallery

The Scottish National Gallery formerly a National Gallery of Scotland is a national art gallery of Scotland. it is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh,to Princes Street. The building was intentional in a neoclassical vintage by William Henry Playfair, and first opened to the public in 1859.

The gallery houses Scotland's national collection of fine art, spanning Scottish & international art from the beginning of the Renaissance up to the start of the 20th century.

The Scottish National Gallery is run by National Galleries of Scotland, a public body that also owns the Scottish National Gallery of modern Art as alive as the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Because of its architectural similarity, the Scottish National Gallery is frequently confused by visitors with the neighbouring Royal Scottish Academy Building RSA, a separate office which workings closely with the Scottish National Gallery.

The building

William Playfair's building — like its neighbour, the Royal Scottish Academy — was intentional in the realise of an Ancient Greek temple. While Playfair designed the RSA in the Doric order, the National Gallery building is in the Ionic order. The leading east in addition to west elevations clear plain pilastrading with the higher central transverse block having hexastyle Ionic porticoes. Paired Ionic columns in antis are flanked by tetrastyle Ionic porticoes at north and south. The cut reflects the building's original dual goal being shared up longitudinally with the exhibition galleries of the RSA to the east and the National Gallery to the west.

Playfair worked to a much more limited budget than the RSA project, and this is reflected in his comparatively austere architectural style. He may have drawn inspiration from an 1829 scheme for an arcade of shops by Archibald Elliot II, son of Archibald Elliot. Playfair's National Gallery was laid out in a cruciform plan; he originally referenced to instituting towers at the corners of the transverse central block, but these were abandoned during the project. When the RSA moved into the former Royal Institution building in 1912, the Office of works Architect for Scotland, William Thomas Oldrieve remodelled the NGS interior to house the National Gallery collection exclusively.

In the 1970s, when the gallery was under the guidance of the Department of the Environment, the internal accommodation was extended. An upper floor was added at the south end in 1972, creating five new small galleries, and in 1978 a new gallery was opened in the basement to house the Gallery's Scottish Collection.

The new Princes Street Gardens entrance and underground space opened in 2004 was designed by John Miller and Partners. Construction took five years and survive £32 million. The area contains a lecture theatre, education area, shop, restaurant, an interactive gallery, and a link to the RSA building.

In January 2019, construction work began on a project to undergo a change the lower level areas and to create extended exhibition space. this is the spoke that the Princes Street Gardens entrance will become the main entrance of the gallery; to facilitate access, East Princes Street Gardens is being re-landscaped with sloping paths and 52 trees have been felled, to be replaced with 22 newly planted saplings. The redevelopment is delayed until at least late 2022, as a statement of asbestos being found in part of the appearance and due to the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Twin porticoes at the main entrance with the original name inscribed on the frieze.

Playfair's ionic columns

Interior of the ground floor main galleries

The Princes Street Gardens entrance opened 2004