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 15 ...

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 th ...

. 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 S ...

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 Loca ...

, about south of George Square. Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) and

Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland The James Hutton Institute is an interdisciplinary scientific research institute in Scotland established in 2011, through the merger of Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI) and the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute. The institute, named af ...

(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 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 Q ...

. 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

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 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 optic ...

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 Bell ...

Road * James Dewar 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 Colin Maclaurin (; gd, Cailean MacLabhruinn; February 1698 – 14 June 1746) was a Scottish mathematician who made important contributions to geometry and algebra. He is also known for being a child prodigy and holding the record for bein ...

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 Peter Guthrie Tait FRSE (28 April 1831 – 4 July 1901) was a Scottish mathematical physicist and early pioneer in thermodynamics. He is best known for the mathematical physics textbook ''Treatise on Natural Philosophy'', which he co-wrote wi ...

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 Christina Cruikshank Miller FRSE (29 August 1899 – 16 July 2001) was a Scottish chemist and one of the first five women (also the first female chemist) elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh (7 March 1949). Christina Miller was deaf from chil ...

Building * Computing Services *

Crew A crew is a body or a class of people who work at a common activity, generally in a structured or hierarchical organization. A location in which a crew works is called a crewyard or a workyard. The word has nautical resonances: the tasks involved ...

Building * Crew Laboratory (previously the William Dudgeon Labs and earlier Mouse House) *

Daniel Rutherford Daniel Rutherford (3 November 1749 – 15 December 1819) was a Scottish physician, chemist and botanist who is known for the isolation of nitrogen in 1772. Life Rutherford was born on 3 November 1749, the son of Anne Mackay and Professor John ...

Building *

Darwin Darwin may refer to: Common meanings * Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection * Darwin, Northern Territory, a territorial capital city i ...

Building * Engineering Lecture Theatre *

Erskine Williamson Erskine Douglas Williamson (born 10 April 1886 in Edinburgh – 25 December 1923) was a Scottish geophysicist. Life Following degrees from the University of Edinburgh and a period on a Research Scholarship from the Carnegie Trust of Scotland, ...

Building * Faraday 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, glaciologist ...

Building * John Murray Labs *

Joseph Black Joseph Black (16 April 1728 – 6 December 1799) was a Scottish physicist and chemist, known for his discoveries of magnesium, latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was Professor of Anatomy and Chemistry at the University of ...

Building * Kenneth Denbigh Building * King's Buildings Centre * King's Buildings House * March Building * Mary Brück Building * Michael Swann 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 Building Darwinbuilding1967

On 5 August 2014, FloWave TT was inaugurated by Amber Rudd, UK

Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change was a British government cabinet position from 2008 to 2016. The Department of Energy and Climate Change was created on 3 October 2008 when then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown ...

. 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 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 (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