Scotch College 1975

Mackie Hall
The Music School and
Foundation Day Concerts

Mackie Hall was demolished in late 2002 to make way for the new Arts and Music complex. Mackie Hall was built in the 1930's. Its designed seemed full of character, although by 1970 is was dated and considered tired. It was, according to my father (who attended Scotch in the 1940's) the last word in modern at that time! Art-deco styling dominated through it. The Hall on the ground floor had a low ceiling, a small stage, and featured novel upward-firing light fittings down each side, interspersed with tall narrow windows that could be masked by black blinds for projection. An ad-hoc projection system had been retro-fitted into the hall, sitting on an exposed steel frame structure at the back.

Mackie Hall was used for meetings of entire years (e.g. all of Form 3), sometimes for House Meetings, for projection of films, and for Foundation Day practice. George Logie Smith or Dick Sherrifs conducted these. George put all his energy into them, and didn't suffer foolish, uncommitted students very well.

Here's the first verse and chorus of the College Song.

There was a stair well at the front that used glass bricks to let natural light in. Upstairs, a single long room the same area as the hall beneath was divided into three section with concertina doors. This area was used for music classes, and even orchestra practices, cramped as it was. (It was, some years before, the location of the school library).

Unfortunately, "music" was not considered by one's peers to be a subject for real men. So there was some pressure not to study it. This was unfortunate for me, as I feel that not studying music as Scotch is a lost opportunity for me, and I regret it very much.

The whole music school had a kind of mystical feel about it, perhaps endeared by the positioning of the school away from the Quad, and by the design of the building which seemed, at the rear especially, somewhat like a building from Alice in Wonderland due to the various arches, strange out-buildings and circular east wing.

The original south window from the first floor of Mackie Hall is now installed in the new building, facing north up Fordholm Rd.