Points of Interest
Dominating the centre of St Andrew Square is the fluted column of the Melville Monument, commemorating Henry Dundas, the first Viscount Melville. The Melville Monument is surrounded by St Andrew Square Gardens, recently redesigned and opened to the public.
On the east side of the square stands the impressive mansion of Dundas House, built by Sir William Chambers for Sir Lawrence Dundas between 1772 and 1774. Once the intended site for St Andrew's Church, Dundas House became the head office of The Royal Bank of Scotland in 1825. Architectural features of Dundas House are represented today on the "Ilay" series of banknotes issued by the Royal Bank; the building's Palladian facade features on the obverse of each note, and the background graphic on both sides of the notes is a radial star design which is based on the ornate ceiling of the banking hall inside Dundas House, designed by John Dick Peddie in 1857.
A short distance from Dundas House, down George Street, is where St. Andrew's Church was built in 1784. In 1806 the head office of the British Linen Bank moved to St. Andrew Square. The building is now a branch of the Bank of Scotland. St. Andrew Square was also home to the National Bank of Scotland, which was headquartered at No. 42, until it merged with the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1969.
Read more about this topic: St Andrew Square, Edinburgh
Famous quotes containing the words points of, points and/or interest:
“Every man has to learn the points of the compass again as often as he awakes, whether from sleep or any abstraction.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Wi’ joy unfeigned brothers and sisters meet,
An’ each for other’s weelfare kindly spiers:
The social hours, swift-winged, unnoticed fleet;
Each tells the uncos that he sees or hears;
The parents, partial, eye their hopeful years;
Anticipation forward points the view:”
—Robert Burns (1759–1796)
“My neighbors tell me of their adventures with famous gentlemen and ladies, what notabilities they met at the dinner-table; but I am no more interested in such things than in the contents of the Daily Times. The interest and the conversation are about costume and manners chiefly; but a goose is a goose still, dress it as you will.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)