Edinburgh City Chambers 4.03

Edinburgh City Chambers was the home of the Edinburgh Corporation, and now the City of Edinburgh Council, in Scotland. The Royal Exchange was funded by subscription and built in 1753–61 to designs by John Adam with detail alterations by John Fergus. The Exchange was opened in 1760 by Lord Provost George Drummond.The Exchange never proved popular with the merchants, for whom it was built, who persisted in meeting at the Mercat Cross or, rather, where it stood before it was removed in 1756. The Town Council took over the north range in 1811 as the City Chambers and by 1893 had bought the whole building.The main building is set back from the High Street behind a quadrangle fronted by a groin-vaulted open arcade screen facing the street. There is a prominent bronze statue of Alexander Taming Bucephalus, by John Steell, in the quadrangle. This was modelled in 1832 but not cast in bronze until 1883. It stood in St Andrew Square until 1916. The "Great War Stone", within the arcade on the High Street, commemorates residents of the royal burgh who lost their lives in World War I. The monument was unveiled by Prince Henry on Armistice Day in 1927, and a further commemorative inscription was added after World War II.