Scots start petition to put googly eyes on a hotel because it looks like the poop emoji

One Scottish hotel, part of an £850m development in Edinburgh, has been told by locals that it literally looks like sh*t – and unfortunately for them, a petition to put googly eyes on it has already garnered more than 1,400 signatures.

The 12-storey W Hotel, which is reported to open next year, will boast 214 guest rooms, which includes 20 suites and an Extreme Wow Suite – that’s a Presidential Suite, apparently.

In a webpage about the project on their website, architects Jestico + Whiles write that the hotel is a “bundle of ‘coiled ribbons’, creating a free-flowing and bold building which complement the development’s masterplan”.

Some might argue it’s free-flowing in more ways than one.

“[The] W Edinburgh will feature a striking exterior façade, evoking the festival spirit of Edinburgh and creating a landmark building at the heart of the city.

“Crafted from a winding steel ‘ribbon’, the design has been likened to spirals of paper, a reference to the many printing presses which occupied surrounding areas in times past,” they added.

You can’t polish a turd, as the saying goes, and it seems as though despite this positive vision, people are still taking an unflattering view to its appearance.

“If we hiv tae look at it we should mak it mair entertainin. Pit googly eyes oan the jobby,” the aforementioned petition reads, with “jobby” being Scottish slang for ‘poo’.

Others have since shown their support for the googly upgrade, with one commenting that “London has the Shard, Edinburgh should have the Shart!”

“Give sight to the sh*te,” wrote another.

A third posted: “It’s an eyesore that needs some eyes.”

Even though it’s been given the affectionate nickname of the Walnut Whip, that hasn’t stopped a Twitter account titled ‘Golden Turd Hotel’ being set up to further sh** on its appearance.

When the new £1bn nearby shopping centre, St James Quarter, was flooded on Sunday, the parody account offered up a humorous take on it all:

The anonymous tweeter is also incredibly proud of the fact that the building was voted the worst building of 2020 in an unofficial poll run by the Crappy Cheapo Architecture Twitter account.

Others, meanwhile, have tweeted to say that the cladding of the building is also “catastrophically poor” when you get close to the hotel:

When a piece of architecture is causing this much of a stink, we’d gladly welcome googly eyes as an improvement.

Indy100 has reached out to Jestico + Whiles for comment.