Appleton Tower is a tower block

Tower block

A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, office tower, apartment block, or block of flats, is a tall building or structure used as a residential and/or office building...

 in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, owned by the University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

.

History

When the University developed the George Square site in the 1960s a huge swathe of Georgian Edinburgh was demolished, leading to accusations of cultural vandalism and megalomania. The Appleton Tower was intended as the first phase of the proposed interlinked Fundamental Science buildings, in a development that would have covered much of the South Side (p66, fig.22). The Tower was named in posthumous honour of physicist Sir Edward Appleton

Edward Victor Appleton

Sir Edward Victor Appleton, GBE, KCB, FRS was an English physicist.-Biography:Appleton was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire and educated at Hanson Grammar School. At the age of 18 he won a scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge...

, the Principal who oversaw the development from vision into concrete reality of the 1960s Edinburgh University buildings around George Square.

In the post-war period, vociferous support for the George Square scheme, and impassioned opposition to it, were so intense as to elevate it to a national debate. Thus, many were glad that some of Appleton's vision was not completed (p. 74).

Design

Designed by Alan Reiach, Eric Hall and Partners, the building included seven floors of laboratory accommodation, surmounting a double-height circulation concourse, with various facilities provided in its podium. A block containing five lecture theatres clad in conglomerate concrete and pebble-imbedded slabs is attached to its southern side. The tower’s completion in 1966 created a symbolic manifestation of Appleton’s vision for integration of the arts and sciences, with twin towers, David Hume (Arts) and Appleton (Sciences), dominating the University's Central area.

An associated teaching block for east George Square, and a Mathematics and Physics building for the ‘car park site’ on north Crichton Street, were intended to interlock at this sector. The latter project was relocated to King’s Buildings in the 1960s, resulting in the James Clerk Maxwell Building, and the succeeding project for the site, the Dental Hospital and School, was abandoned for lack of funding. The Tower was left isolated - and without a proper entrance, as this had been intended to be via connection to further construction.

Appleton Tower was built to allow first-year science students to be taught in the Central Area (p. 59). It has five lecture theatres, together accommodating around 1,200 students, and several smaller seminar and tutorial rooms. The upper floors originally housed teaching laboratories, which, with the development of more modern facilities at King's Buildings, had become outdated by the end of the 20th century.

Refurbishment

Three floors (3-5) of the building have been used by the School of Informatics

University of Edinburgh School of Informatics

The School of Informatics is an academic unit of the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, responsible for research, teaching, outreach and commercialisation in Informatics....

 since the Edinburgh Cowgate fire (December 2002), and these have been completely refurbished, creating a modern environment for teaching and research. The five lecture theatres and teaching space on the ground and first floors were refurbished over the summer of 2006, and the remaining floors (basement and 6-8) were also renovated in 2007.

Recladding

The Tower's external cladding of pre-cast concrete slabs with mosaic detailing has suffered badly from the Scottish weather. Contrary to rumour, however, the structure has been declared sound. The University plans to complete the renovation by recladding the exterior. At the same time it plans to rework the podium, create a proper entrance, and integrate the Tower with the surrounding environment of Edinburgh's Southside.

Context

Although the Fundamental Science Buildings were not completed, preparatory demolition of Bristo Street, to form the adjoining Crichton Street site left the University with an embarrassing gap site, which remained as an open, windswept car park for over forty years.

The 2007 completion of the interior renovation of Appleton Tower coincides with further development of the surrounding area; the Crichton Street Car Park closed in 2005 to allow construction to start on the Informatics Forum

Informatics Forum

The Informatics Forum is a major new building on the Central Area campus of the University of Edinburgh. Completed in 2008, it houses the research institutes of the University's School of Informatics.- Design :...

, for completion in 2007, and further accommodation for Philosophy and Linguistics, for completion in 2008.

Criticism

The geneticist Steve Jones

Steve Jones (biologist)

John Stephen Jones is a Welsh geneticist and from 1995 to 1999 and 2008 to June 2010 was Head of the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London. His studies are conducted in the Galton Laboratory. He is also a television presenter and a prize-winning author on...

 has nominated "the ugliness of the Appleton
Tower" as one of the wonders of the world for a BBC2 TV show.
Early in 2005, a student newspaper launched a campaign to nominate it for the Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 series Demolition – a series about the "worst buildings in Britain". The Tower did not make the final twelve. Later, in the same year, Historic Scotland

Historic Scotland

Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government, responsible for historic monuments in Scotland.-Role:As its website states:...

 considered giving the building listed status, but after opposition it was removed from the list.

External links

• Edinburgh University CompSoc – Appleton Tower
• Photo from the BBC
  BBC
  The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
  
  
• blitzandblight.com / Appleton Tower