This involved demolishing the old Theatre Royal in Shakespeare Square which had been
built in 1768. The Inland Revenue Office already existed immediately to the east of the new building, on Waterloo Place.
The southern aspect of the GPO building overlooked Waverley Station, which opened in 1846.
The foundation stone was laid on 23rd October 1861 by the Prince Consort in the presence of "a large and
fashionable audience". Prince Albert took a personal interest in the design of the building and it was on his
suggestion that sculptured stone urns were added to the facade. During the ceremony, Prince Albert described
the building as "tending to improve and embellish a city already remarkable for its beauty." This was to be
one of Prince Albert's last public functions before his death.
The new building, in moderately rich Italian style utilising yellow Binny Quarry stone, consisted of two
storeys with three-storey corner pavilions, the south west one prolonged to form a taller south frontage. A
pavement of Caithness slabs, 43ft broad, graced the front of the building, facing Waterloo Place.
When it opened to the public on 7th May 1866 The Scotsman reported: "large numbers of people continually
thronged the entrance hall, inspecting the arrangements, and, we believe, a more than usual number of
letters were posted during the day".
Scott was born in Edinburgh 1771 and from an early age began to explore the country,
listening avidly to Scottish songs and stories. Called to the bar at 21, he served on the bench as sheriff
depute for a spell before being appointed a Clerk of Session in 1806.
In the previous year he had published his long poem, Lay of the Last Minstrel. The novel Waverley was
published anonymously in 1814, and his prose output thereafter was prodigious - something like 23 books
in 12 years. Scott's novels were immensely popular, not only in this country. He was deeply patriotic,
and his writing is credited with having rekindled the embers of Scottish national sentiment.
His Edinburgh home during this period was at no. 39 North Castle Street. In 1826 the business failure of
Scott's publisher, John Ballantyne (with whom Scott was in partnership) precipitated the great crisis in the author's life. Characteristically
he vowed to repay the creditors by means of his writing. Scott became a literary workaholic. In heroically tackling what seemed
an impossible task, Scott undermined his health, and seven years later he died at his beloved Abbotsford (1832), in the Borders.
He did, however, achieve his honourable goal, for the last of his debts were cleared with sums realised on the security of copyright
of his popular works.
