Parliament House, Edinburgh
- For the building that houses the modern Scottish Parliament, see Scottish Parliament Building.
Parliament House in Edinburgh, Scotland, was home to the pre-Union Parliament of Scotland, and now houses the Supreme Courts of Scotland. It is located in the Old Town, just off the Royal Mile, beside St Giles Cathedral.
The oldest part of Parliament House is Parliament Hall, which the Town Council of Edinburgh, at its expense, had built as a permanent home for the Estates of Parliament, and as such is the oldest extant purpose built parliamentary building in the British Isles. It was completed in 1639 to the design of James Murray. It has a dramatic hammer beam roof constructed of oak from the Balgonie and Culross forests of Fife thought to be the hardest and most durable in Scotland during that period. The roof of the former Tron Church in the High Street is similar. The roof of the new Scottish Parliament Building continues this tradition, and is supported by large laminated oak beams.
After the Act of Union 1707, the Estates of Parliament was adjourned, and the building ceased to be used for its original function. The Hall was used for the sitting of courts, but in recent times has been subject to restoration work and now remains open as a meeting place for lawyers.
Beneath Parliament Hall lies the Laigh Hall, of similar plan form but considerably less height.
Artwork in Parliament Hall
The right-hand example of the two smaller fireplaces has carved scenes from The Merchant of Venice.
There are multiple paintings by Sir Henry Raeburn: George Joseph Bell; Sir William Nairne, Lord Dunsinane; William Craig, Lord Craig; Matthew Ross; and Lord Abercromby of Tullibody. Paintings by John Watson Gordon include Lord Robertson, Alexander Wood, General Boyle and Erskine Douglas Sandford. Other works include Sir Thomas Hope by George Jameson, Lord Mansfield by David Martin, George Deas, Lord Deas by John Graham Gilbert, Sir Ilay Campbell by John Partridge, John Inglis, Lord Glencorse by George Reid. and Duncan McNeill by John Phillip.
In a corridor beyond the south door of the hall stand figures of "Justice" and "Mercy" by Alexander Mylne (1637) which formerly stood over the main entrance on Parliament Square.
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Even while the old Parliament was still in existence, parts of the buildings were used for legal cases, and afterwards this became the main function of the building. The building is now used to house the College of Justice and other connected functions. In modern times, the building is chiefly used by the Court of Session, which hears civil cases, whilst most of the work of the High Court of Justiciary, which hears criminal cases, takes place in a dedicated building on the other side of the Royal Mile which formerly housed Edinburgh's Sheriff Court.
The Advocates' Library was founded in 1682, and is currently located in a William Henry Playfair-designed building to the west of the south end of Parliament Hall. It remains a heavily-used legal resource. As well as collecting legal works, it was also a deposit library, and in 1925 the non-legal books in their collection were gifted to the new National Library of Scotland, which is located next to the library, on George IV Bridge.
To the west of the north end of Parliament Hall is The Signet Library. It is a private library, funded by members of The Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet, who are generally practising solicitors. Construction began in 1810 to a design by Robert Reid, and it presents a classical front to Parliament Square. This façade wraps around Parliament House as well, and replaced the existing Scottish baronial façade.
St Giles Cathedral
|Home of the Parliament of Scotland
Scottish Parliament Building