Melville Monument Edinburgh. Pull down?

St Andrew Square Edinburgh was built by 1781, an integral part of James Craig's scheme for New Town. For a long time, the squ­are's gardens were acc­es­s­ible only by very desirable inhabitants of the  sur­round­ing homes.

The Melville Monument

in the centre of  St Andrew Square Edinburgh

The Melville Monument is a large column and statue, built by 1827 to memorialise Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Mel­ville (1742–1811). Yet the City now wants to ded­icate the cont­ro­ver­sial Henry Dun­das monument to those enslaved be­cause of Dundas’ own act­ions! What happ­en­ed between 1827-2020 to take Dundas from hero to anti-hero?

Dundas was born into a very distinguished Scottish legal family. After studying Law at Ed­in­burgh Uni then pract­is­ing, he first ent­er­ed Parl­iam­ent in 1774. Soon Dundas became Lord Advoc­ate and appr­op­riated im­men­se power over Scottish aff­airs. He was particularly in­terested in the welfare of the High­lands, founding the High­land Soc­iety in 1784.

Tory-aligned, Dundas gained influence under Prime Minist­er William Pitt and soon became Home Secretary. He sup­pres­sed pop­ular unrest following the 1788-9 French Revolution. He sup­p­­orted con­sol­idation of the Empire, and the Union of Great Britain with Ireland alongside Cath­olic emancipation. In the Commons, Dundas oppos­ed William Wilber­forc­e's legislative efforts to immediately end the slave trade.

As First Lord of the Admiralty, he strengthened the Royal Navy before the Battle of Trafalgar. Becoming Viscount Melville in 1802, Dundas was impeached for misapprop­riation of naval funds, and tried by the House of Lords. Found not guilty on all charges, he re-entered the Privy Council and died in May 1811.

Clearly Dundas was a dominant political figure. The idea of building a monum­ent to him was first raised at a Pitt Club meeting, urging Vice Admiral Sir Wil­liam Hope to start a Melville Monum­ent Com­m­ittee. In gov­ernment, Dundas had been loved for advanc­ing meas­ures to support Royal Navy sailors and their dependents. So the project was first led by na­v­al offic­ers and suppo­rt­ed by sailors’ subscriptions, along with civic, leg­al and family figures.

By late 1818, the location Committee settled on St Andrew Square in Edinb­ur­gh's New Town. William Burn, an ar­ch­itect sympa­th­et­ic to Dundas' Tory pol­itics, was engaged and the square owners agreed to the scheme by Ap 1819. The marble column was 45m and topped by a 4.2m sandstone statue of Dun­das designed by Fr­an­cis Leggatt Chantrey and carved by Robert Forrest, a prominent land­mark. The statue depicted its subject clad in a peer’s robes, facing west al­ong George St with his left hand on his chest - tall and muscular, with striking features. But the project was not completed until 1827 and not paid off until 1837.

 marble column was 45m, topped by a 4.2m sandstone statue of Dun­das 

 BBC 

Scottish memorials back then were often figures from the arts or his­tory. Such figures expressed antique nationalism and Un­ionist nat­ion­alism, asserting Scotland's unique national identity with­out chall­eng­ing its place within the Union. So Dund­as was defending the notion that Scotland was not a col­ony, but an equal partner in the Union. By the 1830s, however, the town council rec­orded the criticisms of some cit­izens who objected to the city maintaining a memorial to a fig­ure now with immoral policies.

C20th and C21st
Historic Environment Scotland called the monument as one of the most prominent landmarks in Edinburgh, occupying a fine position on the New Town ridge. Relevant to its origin as a tribute from the Royal Navy, its posit­ion made it visible from ships in the Firth of Forth.

The Melville Monument looks over the Firth of Forth

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The monument has been protected as a Category A listed build­ing since 1966. In 2003, the Institution of Civil Engineers placed an explan­at­ory plaque to the monument at the western entrance to the garden. In 2008 the square was redeveloped for £2.4m, fully open­ing to the public!

Also in 2008 Edinburgh World Heritage supported the con­serv­ation as part of its Twelve Monuments scheme. But inevit­ably the monument faced increasing cont­ro­versy.

In 2017 the City Council, responding to a petition from environmental campaigner, Adam Ramsay, convened a Committee to draft the re-wording of a plaque to reflect controversial aspects of Dundas' history. The Committee included anti-racism campaigner-academic Sir Geoff Pal­m­er and historian Michael Fry who proposed that by arguing for grad­ual ab­ol­it­ion, Dundas actually supp­orted abol­ition in a pro-slavery parliament.

In June 2020, with an international outcry over murders of American blacks, Palmer reiterated calls for a new plaque, or a petit­ion to rem­ove the monument altogether! While a perm­anent plaque was delayed, the Council installed a temporary, explanatory plaque in July 2020. They used the intended wording of the perm­an­ent pl­aque from the Com­mit­tee, with Council & Edinburgh World Heritage members.

In Mar 2021 the Council approved the installation of a permanent pl­aque, dedicated to the memory of the half a million Afric­ans whose on­going enslavement continued. Dundas' actions didn’t invent sl­av­ery but he defended and expanded the British empire. Yes, he im­posed colonial rule on indigenous peoples and cur­bed democratic dissent in Scot­land. In response, the current Viscount Mel­ville criticised the word­ing. 

The original plaque, 1823

Flicker

Prof Desmarest argued the monument was Imperial, part of a general movement from 1800 to hon­our heroes of Britain's empire. This might have been perfectly appropriate at the time, but no longer. I, Hels, wouldn’t destroy the beautiful square but I would totally rewrite the plaque with careful historical accuracy.

The new plaque, BBC

A replacement plaque was eventually installed by Edinburgh's council at the base of the controversial Melville Monument. The previous plaque was removed by a monument group led by a descendant of Henry Dundas, in whose honour the statue was erected in 1827. Now see the new plaque, analaysed by the BBC.