DEMOLITION of properties in George Square, prototype of Edinburgh’s 18th century New Town, began within hours of the last legal objection having been removed in the Court of Session in June 1960.

A number of women in mourning clothes demonstrated as workmen began taking apart five houses in the square, and other property in adjacent streets, to make way for a 14-storey teaching block in Edinburgh University’s Faculty of Arts.

Strenuous opposition had long been voiced by civic bodies and by such notables as Sir Compton Mackenzie.