From 20 April to 11 May 2023, Historic Environment Scotland (HES) sought views on our proposal to designate the remnant of the Gulliver Sculpture in Edinburgh at category C.
The left foot of the Gulliver Sculpture is among the last remains of an enormous concrete human figure play sculpture, conceived and completed between 1976 and 1978 for the Craigmillar Festival Society. Gulliver was largely demolished in 2011. It is an important example of community-led public art in Scotland and a rare surviving marker of the work of the influential grass-roots regeneration initiative known as the Craigmillar Festival Society (1962-2002).
We received no responses to the Citizen Space consultation.
Following direct consultation to interested parties, we received comments from The Twentieth Century Society and Docomomo Scotland. Both were in favour of listing.
The Twentieth Century Society noted their previous application to list, and made the following points:
Docomomo Scotland commented that the remnant of the sculpture was ‘A rare reminder of the Craigmillar Festival Society and its work.’
The local authority had no substantive comments. They noted no issues regarding the proposed listing from a planning perspective, and no relevant development proposals affecting the site.
We have now listed the remnant of the sculpture at category C. The listed building records are available on our Heritage Portal, where the final Report of Handling is also available.
Our historic environment is always changing. Listing does not prevent change, but it does allow for a structure’s special character to be taken into account when changes are proposed.
The left foot of the Gulliver Sculpture is among the last remains of an enormous concrete human figure play sculpture, conceived and completed between 1976 and 1978 for the Craigmillar Festival Society. Gulliver was largely demolished in 2011.
We are proposing to list the surviving remnant of the Gulliver Sculpture in Hunter's Hall Park, Edinburgh, at Category C to recognise its special interest as an important example of community-led public art in Scotland. We think it is a rare surviving marker of the work of the influential grass-roots regeneration initiative known as the Craigmillar Festival Society (1962-2002).
We have launched this public consultation to gather views on listing the remnant of the Gulliver Sculpture.
Find out more about listed buildings.
Find out more about cultural significance.
Find out more about why we think the remnant of the Gulliver Sculpture meets the criteria for listing by downloading our Report of Handling. You can Email your comments about this case or contact us via the Heritage Portal.
Find out what comments we consider and what happens next in our guide and the video below.
For a version of this video in British Sign Language, please visit our Youtube channel.
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