The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded £707,705 towards the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh's rebuilding of the Botanic Cottage (Breaking news, 3.9.09; Issues 207, 216).
The financial injection – announced today – will allow RGBE to progress the last stage of planning and fundraising before the project officially starts this summer. Work to reconstruct the building, taken apart stone by stone in 2008, will most probably begin in spring 2014.
Professor Stephen Blackmore, Regius Keeper of the RGBE, said the award will:
'... breathe new life into a building with a remarkable and important history.
'When the Botanic Cottage follows us to Inverleith, almost two centuries after we moved from Leith Walk, it will become the centrepiece of our rapidly expanding programme of voluntary and education activities helping to transform our public engagement.
'The award is wonderful news for the Botanics.'
The Botanic Cottage was the gateway to the original Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh site on Leith Walk from 1764 to 1821. Designed by John Adam, it was an important lecture theatre during the Enlightenment and has connections to many eminent architects and scientists of the day.
Its role as a place of learning will resume with training workshops in traditional building and craft skills for young apprentices, horticulture-themed projects for local schools, and history and heritage events and exhibitions for the general public.
Architects Simpson & Brown’s interesting, illustrated ‘Design and Access Statement’ – giving a history of the Cottage and the project to bring it back into use – is downloadable here.