How Hong Kong helped restore Adam Smith’s former home in Edinburgh to create venue for the world’s greatest minds to meet
Panmure House, the only surviving residence of the 18th century economist, is being turned into a hub for the latest academic thinking thanks in part to fund-raising in Hong Kong led by Bank of East Asia’s David Li
In the heart of Edinburgh, at the end of Royal Mile farthest from the castle, there is a semi-derelict house. It is easy to walk past it without realising its significance, which is what people did for many years.
What they would not have known is that it is a former residence of one of the world’s pioneering economic thinkers, Adam Smith. What’s more, this house in the Scottish capital has strong connections to Hong Kong.
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When Heather McGregor began her job as executive dean of Edinburgh Business School (EBS) in 2016, she discovered that the building – Panmure House – was, unusually, owned by the school. It is, in fact, the only surviving home of Scottish economist and philosopher Smith, but was in a sorry state of affairs after an initial project to rescue it seemed to run out of steam.
“I said, ‘What’s that?’ And they said, ‘That’s Panmure House, a building we bought in 2008 and we’ve been raising money to restore.’ ‘Have you got enough money to finish it?’ I asked. They said no. It was obvious people felt sad the project hadn’t been finished,” says McGregor, who was in Hong Kong in December.
Smith lived in the house from 1778 to 1789, and it was here that he revised his magnum opus, The Wealth of Nations – a fundamental work in classical economics. Smith liked to surround himself with great thinkers and debate big ideas, and the house was a regular meeting place for the intellectual giants of the Scottish Enlightenment, from David Hume and Adam Ferguson to James Watt and Francis Hutcheson.
After Smith’s death in 1790, the house was used for a number of purposes, including a Victorian boys’ club. Its historic significance was overlooked and after years of neglect it fell into disrepair.
