Royal Museum, Chambers Street, Edinburgh

The Royal Scottish Museum (now known as the Royal Museum) was built in 1861-74. Its fantastic iron and glass great hall was floored with plain geometric tiles, but these were removed in 1971. However, an intriguing tile pavement remains in the entrance arcade. This substantial area was set aside for major tile manufacturers to submit examples of their best designs, which were to be laid for the education and enlightenment of visitors. The pavement, with separate elements from up to eight manufacturers, still survives, although its western end is slightly obscured by exhibition cases. Robert Minton Taylor was one of two manufacturers with the foresight to include a trade tile in their section, but the others are more difficult to identify. The top row of photographs shows the tiles to the west of the main entrance (those adjacent to the new Museum of Scotland) while the lower row shows the pavement east of the entrance. Click on the photographs to enlarge, then use your browser's back button to return to this page.