Usher Hall, Cambridge Street, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh

Description

James Stockdale Harrison and Howard Henry Thomson, 1910-14. 3-storey Beaux Arts concert hall on wedge-shaped site, with polygonal entrance front, elliptical ribbed copper dome on drum with glazed cupola, and horseshoe-plan auditorium. Polished Darney sandstone ashlar, channelled to ground floor; Kemnay granite base course and steps. Moulded cornice to ground floor; cornice with curved corbels to drum. 5 projecting bays: 3 principal entrances to crush halls to N (Cambridge Street), NW and W (Lothian Road); crush halls, corridors etc to NE and SW. Keystoned (lion-headed), rusticated round-arched entrance openings to principal entrances, pushing up entablature and flanked by paired Roman Doric columns on granite pedestals; Diocletian windows over triple 2-leaf glazed oak doors (triangular panes with radiating astragals, lyre-shaped bronze pull handles) in cast-bronze door cases with banded leaf motif; glazed bronze canopies with reeded bronze frame and lion-headed supporting brackets. Important programme of external and internal sculpture (see Notes).

NW ELEVATION: THE USHER HALL in gilded letters over entrance.

SW (GRINDLAY STREET) ELEVATION: 5-bay recessed section to right (adjoining Lyceum Theatre): rusticated flat-arched openings to ground; stage door to centre (2-leaf glazed door) with cornice above; regularly fenestrated at 1st and 2nd floors, windows in projecting surrounds, segmental pediment to centre 1st floor window. 7-bay symmetrical advanced section to left: entrances to galleries in outer bays; 2-leaf glazed doors in corniced moulded surrounds; semicircular recessed panels above with carved heads and cartouches (see Notes); paired small windows above; advanced penultimate bays to right and left with windows in moulded surrounds; recessed 3-bay centre section with lunettes to ground (cast-iron screens below windows) and windows in moulded surrounds to 1st floor, flanked by giant Roman Doric columns.

INTERIOR: 3 principal entrances give access to marble-clad crush halls: geometric black and white Sicilian marble floors; paired pilasters clad in gold-tinted Siena marble; moulded and gilded plaster ceiling. Limestone stairs with brass handrails from Grand Tier crush hall, lined with panels of Roman stone and Siena marble. Grand Tier foyer: paired Siena marble-clad Doric columns; oak parquet floor. Corridors surrounding and giving access to auditorium (mahogany double doors) and services (toilets, bars etc): compartmented ceiling; curved plaster panels flanked by pilasters; gilded medallions featuring poets and composers over doors. Plain stone steps and white glazed tiles to gallery stair-cases; arcaded crush halls at gallery level with circular roof lights. Horseshoe-shaped auditorium: 2 cantilevered reinforced concrete balconies; proscenium arch, containing platform and choir seating, supported on giant fluted and reeded Ionic columns with swagged capitals (white-painted and gilded); painted and gilded plaster decoration (musical instruments etc); beamed, compartmented ceiling. Organ (see Notes): fills wall behind choir seating; carved mahogany case, gilded trumpet-playing putti.

Steel-framed windows. Plate glass to rooflights and textured glass in small-pane glazing to windows. Bronze down pipes with decorative hoppers.

STANDARD LAMPS: 3 pairs of original cast-bronze lamp standards (designed by Stockdale Harrison) marking principal entrances, with fluted columns on square-plan bases supporting octagonal lanterns (patterned glass) surmounted by urn finials.

Statement of Interest

Built as the result of a donation of £100,000 to the City by Andrew Usher, brewer, to build a concert hall. After the selection of the site, a design competition held in July 1910 was won by Stockdale Harrison and Sons and Howard Thomson, Leicester. The article in THE BUILDER criticises the choice of site and Harrison's design, and reproduces the other 3 premiated designs. Foundation stone laid 19th July 1911 by George V and Queen Mary. Opening concerts 6th and 7th March 1914. Concrete, steel and brick construction, clad with stone. Concrete supplied by General Fireproof Construction, Glasgow; dome steel trusses by Redpath, Brown & Co, London; steel window frames by Henry Hope & Sons, Birmingham; bronze doorways by The Bromsgrove Guild, Worcester, bronze door handles by Charles Henshaw, Edinburgh; lamp standards by McKenzie and Moncur; plasterwork by Thomas Beattie (Edinburgh). Organ: Norman and Beard (Norwich), 1914; mahogany case by Adam Currie (Edinburgh), carving by John Gibson (Edinburgh). Artists for the important programme of exterior sculpture were selected after a limited competition in 1912. Over the columns flanking the principal entrances are: NW entrance - William Birnie Rhind: City Arms and Royal Arms; N (Cambridge Street) entrance - Joseph Crosland McClure: 'The Music of the Woods' and 'The Music of the Sea;' W (Lothian Road) entrance - Joseph Crosland McClure: 'Municipal Benefice' and 'The Soul of Music;' lion-headed keystones by Hubert Paton. Above the entablature of the Grindlay Street elevation: Henry Snell Gamley: 'Musical Appreciation' and 'Musical Achievement;' in the tympani over the gallery entrances - masks and cartouches by Joseph Hayes. Internal decorative plaster overdoor friezes and medallions by Henry Snell Gamley. Some original gilt light fittings by Singer and Sons, Frome, and Charles Henshaw, Edinburgh.

A renovation project was begun in the 1990s and culminated in the construction of a three storey curved glass extension by LDN architects which will provide public and hospitality areas as well as office space. The official re-opening of the Usher Hall is expected to take place on 10 October 2010.

List description updated as part of the Theatres Thematic Study, 2010.

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