Two historic Edinburgh city centre buildings a short walk apart share three things in common. One is both are the sites of highly controversial planning applications, the second is they are exciting cultural developments and the third is they wouldn’t be happening without extraordinary philanthropy.

No prizes for guessing they are the Dunard Centre, the new concert hall now slowly rising behind St Andrew Square, and the Old Royal High School, soon to become the National Centre for Music. Both are the recipients of millions from the Dunard Fund, the Edinburgh-based charitable trust chaired by the former concert pianist Carol Colburn Grigor, without whom, it’s fair to say, the Edinburgh International Festival would struggle as commercial sponsorship becomes harder to secure. The lack of female statues in the capital is often remarked upon, but when it comes to deciding who should be next after the commemoration of medical pioneer Dr Elsie Inglis is erected on the High Street – another planning controversy − Carol Grigor should be top of the list.

Both projects have troubled histories, not least because original cost estimates were, like the Scottish Parliament, fanciful. As an alternative to a much-criticised plan to turn the school into a 6-star Rosewood hotel, in 2015 the Royal High Preservation Trust proposed a concert venue and a new home for St Mary’s Music School for £25m, but by 2023 costs were up to £45m and the St Mary’s flit abandoned. Now it is hoped the National Centre for Music can be realised for £68m and welcome its first audience in 2028.

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