The King's Buildings (colloquially known as just King's or KB) is a campus of the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1 ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. Located in the suburb of Blackford, the site contains most of the schools within the College of Science and Engineering, excepting only the School of Informatics and part of the School of Geosciences, which are located at the central

George Square George Square ( gd, Ceàrnag Sheòrais) is the principal civic square in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is one of six squares in the city centre, the others being Cathedral Square, St Andrew's Square, St Enoch Square, Royal Exchange ...

campus. The campus lies south of West Mains Road, west of Mayfield Road and east of

Blackford Hill Blackford Hill is a hill in Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. It is in the area of Blackford, between Morningside, and the Braid Hills. Together with the Hermitage of Braid, it comprises the Hermitage of Braid and Blackford Hill L ...

, about south of George Square. Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) and Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland (BioSS) also have facilities there.

History

In 1919 Edinburgh University bought the land of West Mains Farm in the south of the city with the intention of building a satellite campus specialising in the Sciences. The first building was the Chemistry Building (renamed the Joseph Black Building) designed by

Arthur Forman Balfour Paul Arthur Forman Balfour Paul (7 August 1875 – 3 June 1938) (affectionately known as "Baffy" Paul) was a Scottish architect operating largely in the early 20th century. Life He was born in Edinburgh on 7 August 1875, the son of Sir James Balf ...

in 1919. Building started in 1920 and was completed after 1924 by John Fraser Matthew. This was followed by the Zoology Building (renamed the Ashworth Laboratories) dating from 1929, also by Matthew. The name "King's Buildings" is a reference to then-king

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the Genetics Institute part of King's Buildings was used as the location for the first War Office Selection Board. University of Edinburgh celebrated more than 100 years of the site in 2021 with their KB101 campaign which included a lecture series and newly commissioned artworks by

Katie Paterson Katie Paterson (born 1981) is a Fife-based visual artist from Glasgow, Scotland, having previously lived and worked in Berlin whose artworks concern translation, distance, and scale. Paterson holds a BA from Edinburgh College of Art (2004) and ...

Street and building names

Marion Ross Road, King's Buildings, Edinburgh

All the campus properties shared one of two addresses until, in 2014, the University approached the

City of Edinburgh Council The City of Edinburgh Council is the local government authority for the city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. With a population of in mid-2019, it is the second most populous local authority area in Scotland. In its current form, the counci ...

, as the road naming authority, with a request to name all the individual roads within the campus to honour famous scientists and mathematicians associated with the University. When the proposed changes were discussed in City of Edinburgh Development Management Sub-Committee, it was pointed out that some of the names were overly long and cumbersome. Two of the proposed names were rejected as unsuitable as Christina Miller was deemed to be too similar sounding to Christie Miller, who already appears in three street names; and Robert Edwards did not meet the Council’s 10-year waiting period for deceased people. The University eventually substituted Marion Ross Road for Christina Miller Road and James Dewar Road for Robert Edwards Road. The final agreed street system was: *

Charlotte Auerbach Charlotte "Lotte" Auerbach FRS FRSE (14 May 1899 – 17 March 1994) was a German geneticist who contributed to founding the science of mutagenesis. She became well known after 1942 when she discovered with A. J. Clark and J. M. Robson that mu ...

Road * Thomas Bayes Road *

Max Born Max Born (; 11 December 1882 – 5 January 1970) was a German physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a ...

Crescent *

David Brewster Sir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA Scot FSSA MICE (11 December 178110 February 1868) was a British scientist, inventor, author, and academic administrator. In science he is principally remembered for his experimental work in physical optics ...

Road *

Alexander Crum Brown Alexander Crum Brown FRSE FRS (26 March 1838 – 28 October 1922) was a Scottish organic chemist. Alexander Crum Brown Road in Edinburgh's King's Buildings complex is named after him. Early life and education Crum Brown was born at 4 Bellev ...

Road *

James Dewar Sir James Dewar (20 September 1842 – 27 March 1923) was a British chemist and physicist. He is best known for his invention of the vacuum flask, which he used in conjunction with research into the liquefaction of gases. He also studied a ...

Road *

James Hutton James Hutton (; 3 June O.S.172614 June 1726 New Style. – 26 March 1797) was a Scottish geologist, agriculturalist, chemical manufacturer, naturalist and physician. Often referred to as the father of modern geology, he played a key role ...

Road * KB Square * Colin MacLaurin Road *

Marion Ross Marion Ross (born Marian Ellen Ross; October 25, 1928) is a American former actress. Her best-known role is that of Marion Cunningham on the ABC television sitcom '' Happy Days'', on which she starred from 1974 to 1984 and for which she recei ...

Road * Peter Guthrie Tait Road *

Robert Stevenson Robert Stevenson may refer to: * Robert Stevenson (actor and politician) (1915–1975), American actor and politician * Robert Stevenson (civil engineer) (1772–1850), Scottish lighthouse engineer * Robert Stevenson (director) (1905–1986), Engli ...

Road

Buildings

Joseph Black building, University of Edinburgh - geograph

Engineering building, University of Edinburgh - geograph

Scottish Microelectronics Centre, University of Edinburgh - geograph

Building names at KB reflect the spectrum of British science: *

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and T ...

Building * Alrick Building * Ann Walker Building * Ashworth Laboratories * Biospace * Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions * Christina Miller Building * Computing Services * Crew Building * Crew Laboratory (previously the William Dudgeon Labs and earlier Mouse House) * Daniel Rutherford Building * Darwin Building * Engineering Lecture Theatre * Erskine Williamson Building *

Faraday Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic induction, ...

Building * Fleeming Jenkin Building * Grant Institute * Hudson Beare Building *

James Clerk Maxwell James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish mathematician and scientist responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism and ligh ...

Building *

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologis ...

Building * John Murray Labs * Joseph Black Building * Kenneth Denbigh Building * King's Buildings Centre * King's Buildings House * March Building *

Mary Brück Mary Teresa Brück (née Conway; 1925-2008) was an Irish astronomer, astrophysicist and historian of science, whose career was spent at Dunsink Observatory in Dublin and the Royal Observatory Edinburgh in Scotland. Early life Mary Teresa Conw ...

Building *

Michael Swann Michael Meredith Swann, Baron Swann, FRS, FRSE (1 March 1920 – 22 September 1990) was a British molecular and cell biologist. He was appointed chairman of the BBC, awarded a knighthood and subsequently a life peerage. Early life Swann was bo ...

Building * Murchison House * Noreen and Kenneth Murray Library * The Nucleus * Ocean Energy Research Facility * Peter Wilson Building * Robertson Engineering & Science Library * Roger Land Building * Sanderson Building * Scottish Microelectronics Centre * Structures Lab * Swann Building * Waddington Building *

William Rankine William John Macquorn Rankine (; 5 July 1820 – 24 December 1872) was a Scottish mechanical engineer who also contributed to civil engineering, physics and mathematics. He was a founding contributor, with Rudolf Clausius and William Thomson ( ...

Building

On 5 August 2014, FloWave TT was inaugurated by

Amber Rudd Amber Augusta Rudd (born 1 August 1963) is a British former politician who served as Home Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2018 to 2019. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Hastings and Rye, fir ...

, UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. The FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility is a world-unique, diameter wave and current tank primarily focused on testing marine energy technologies and projects. In 2019 the data centre in the James Clerk Maxwell Building was named in honour of

Mary Somerville Mary Somerville (; , formerly Greig; 26 December 1780 – 29 November 1872) was a Scottish scientist, writer, and polymath. She studied mathematics and astronomy, and in 1835 she and Caroline Herschel were elected as the first female Honorary ...

and in 2020 the IT skills training room was named in honour of Xia Peisu.

Other facilities

* King's Buildings House, also known as KB House, is the student union at King's Buildings, run by

Edinburgh University Students' Association Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian Lothian (; sco, ...

(EUSA). The Mayfield Bar and Blackford Lounge serve hot food and drinks on the ground floor, along with the KB House Shop and a games room. A full servery, Common Room and Kitchen, can be found upstairs, serving a wider variety of hot food. The union is also home to The Advice Place student advisory service and KB Gym, which includes two badminton and two squash courts. * KB Centre Shop is another EUSA-run shop, located in the KB Centre. The store stocks convenience products, alongside hot drinks, made-to-order sandwiches and hot food to take away. * Cafés include The Magnet Café in the James Clerk Maxwell Building, KB Café in the Noreen and Kenneth Murray Library, Upstairs Café in the Swann Building, XY Café in the Roger Land Building, Brucks Café in the Mary Bruck building, and The Eng Inn in the Hudson Beare Building.

King's Buildings 5 Mile Road Race

The KB 5 Road Race is organised every year by the Edinburgh University Hare and Hounds Running Club. It is usually held in late February or early March. The race starts and finishes inside the King's Buildings campus. The course consists of a road loop around the streets of south Edinburgh, with quite a few hills, though none of them steep. The race is popular with student and local club runners and usually attracts around 250 participants.

Notes

References

External links

College of Science and Engineering website

University of Edinburgh website

University of Edinburgh – King's Buildings campus map
{{coord, 55, 55, 22, N, 3, 10, 30, W, type:landmark, display=title Buildings and structures of the University of Edinburgh University and college campuses in the United Kingdom University of Edinburgh