Outlook Tower

Outlook Tower is a building in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the Royal Mile next to Edinburgh Castle. Its origins began on Calton Hill where Maria Theresa Short formed an exhibition observatory in 1853. It moved to Castlehill in 1855 and was known as "Short's Observatory, Museum of Science and Art" from 1855 to 1892. The structure added two storeys to the pre-existing tenement to create this. The tenement is thought to be the original mansion of the Laird of Cockpen, turned into small flats in the 18th century. The main attraction in "Shorts" was the Camera Obscura occupying the topmost room.

It was purchased and refurbished by Patrick Geddes in 1892 to transform into a "place of outlook and a type-museum as a key to a better understanding of Edinburgh and its region, but also to help people get a clear idea of its relation to the world at large". The building is now known as "Camera Obscura & World of Illusions".

Part of the Old Edinburgh School of Art in Ramsay Lane, on the corner of Castlehill, Geddes renamed Short's Observatory as the Outlook Tower, incorporating Maria Short's Camera Obscura and mounted his Civic Survey of Edinburgh exhibition. Patrick Geddes was a committed believer in the exhibition as a vehicle of education. The exhibition though constructed and opened to the public, was relatively short-lived and never completed.

The camera room was expanded and remodelled in 1945.