Opening of New Medical School, 1884

The Tercentenary was celebrated in 1884 instead of the historically correct date of 1883 in order to coincide with the opening of the new Medical School. order to coincide with the opening of the ‘New Buildings’. These were a response not just to growing numbers, but to changing practices in medical education: besides clinical experience in the Royal Infirmary, itself recently rebuilt, students now needed a grounding in scientific theory, and large and modern laboratories were essential if Edinburgh was to retain its reputation.

Having already bought the site, the university launched a public appeal in 1874, and an initial £60,000 was raised. The architect, Robert Rowand Anderson, made a tour of British and continental universities to examine the latest developments. His design included a giant campanile, which had no functional purpose despite vague references to Galileo-style physics experiments, and a graduation and examination hall, which certainly had practical functions but was also part of the desire to make ceremonials more impressive and to promote graduates’ identification with their alma mater.18 ‘It was hardly fitting the dignity of a great University’, said a speak

Edinburgh secured a government grant of £80,000 for its medical school, but on condition that the campanile and hall were dropped, and that further sums were raised by subscription. It was also found, as tends to be the way with such projects, that the cost of equipping the building and incorporating the latest scientific advances had been badly underestimated. By 1884 successive appeals had raised about £130,000, but even then the building was not fully fitted out, and a further appeal for £15,000 had to be launched in January 1885