I like ambition. I like positive thinking. I like going out on a limb. I like an environment that fosters risk-taking.
I like the fact that commitment to a bold and adventurous course of action creates opportunities that no-one would have known about had the commitment not been made.
So, there is much to admire within the headline-grabbing ambition of Perth and Kinross Council, what with the eye-catching half-a-billion price tag, the dangled carrot of City of Culture status, and the implicit determination to put the “Fair” back into the Fair City.
You are wondering when the “but” comes along, right? So here goes.
BUT…before whoever is expected to part with that half-a-billion pounds actually parts with it, he, she or it will be looking for signs that behind the big talk there are serious minds with trail-blazing cultural innovation on the agenda. What they are going to find, however, is the less-than-trail-blazing proposition that a gloomy Edwardian pile which has been consigned to the scrap-heap of Perth’s civic thinking for a decade, is suddenly elevated from oblivion into a more appropriate resting place for the Stone of Destiny than Edinburgh Castle.
Bonkers doesn’t quite cover it, but it’s close.
How many of the following organisations with axes to grind on the subject has the council had meaningful conversations with, so that they were suitably encouraged in their decision to make the idea public: the Royal Family, the Scottish Government, the British Government, Historic Scotland, not to mention the police and the army both of which have a substantial role to play in ensuring the security of the stone, and…well, us, the people of Scotland?
Which is more appropriate as the resting place for arguably Scotland’s most significant historical symbol – a broken down architectural brute of an unused Edwardian hall or the Crown Room within the Royal Palace of Edinburgh Castle where it keeps the company of the Honours of Scotland?
Furthermore, what would it say to the world beyond Perth that this country of Scotland with pro-European, internationalist ambitions of its own, not to mention the still-simmering question of national independence (which is still the policy of the party of government and the majority view of our elected representatives at Holyrood)…what would it say to the rest of the world that Scotland was willing to treat such symbolism as the Stone of Destiny with such casual unconcern that it was relocated in circumstances that ensured that its significance would be immeasurably devalued?
The council leadership believes that the presence of the stone in Perth would bring 160,000 visitors a year. Edinburgh Castle’s treasures were seen last year by almost 1,600,000. Why would Scotland hide away one of its most treasured possessions from the admiring gaze of almost one and a half million visitors a year?
Or to put it another way, is there really anyone anywhere in the land, inside or outside Perth and Kinross Council, who truly believes it’s going to happen before, say, hell freezes over?
The be-all and end-all of this almost laughable situation is the elephant in room, if I may mix my metaphors. Since the council’s original – and uncharacteristically wise – decision to demolish Perth City Hall was overruled by Historic Scotland, no-one has had a clue what to do with it, and the suggestions have got more and more straw-clutching, more and more surreal.
The cultural, architectural and historical credentials of Perth would be best served by reverting to that original decision, demolishing the hall, creating a civic square in its place, and, in the process of creating that square, liberating and showing off to the world the city’s most significant building, which is St John’s Kirk.
Quite apart from its historical and architectural significance, it is the very foundation stone of the city, and what would impress the judges of the City of Culture award more than a city that has decided to honour its own origins, a building with more than 500 years of its own history, on a site that has links back to the reign of David I; and that the honouring and the liberating was achieved by sweeping away the great gloomy edifice of the Edwardians and allowing light and space to take its place.
It’s good that the council is thinking big, is aiming to revive the fortunes of a once handsome city that has fallen on un-handsome times. There is an argument for kicking around all kinds of ideas in the context of finding what fits and what works, and in that process, no idea is too stupid. The difficult part is sifting the ideas into those which make sense and those which make nonsense.
Perth has history enough of its own, and a natural centrepiece for its ambitions. The Stone of Destiny is where it should be, and the City Hall is still where it shouldn’t be.
