New Town Conservation Area Character Appraisal The New Town Conservation Area Character Appraisal was approved by the Planning Committee on 16 June 2005

ISBN 1 85191 072 7 Some of the maps in the document have been reproduced from the Ordnance Survey mapping with permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office

© Crown Copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown Copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. OS License No. LA09027L. New Town C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a ct e r A p p r a i s a l

Contents

INTRODUCTION...... 2

HISTORICAL ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT...... 7

ANALYSIS AND ESSENTIAL CHARACTER ...... 20

ROUTES AND APPROACHES ...... 24

SPATIAL STRUCTURE ...... 26

TOWNSCAPE ...... 27

ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER ...... 32

ACTIVITIES AND USES ...... 38

NATURAL HERITAGE ...... 42

OPPORTUNITIES FOR ENHANCEMENT ...... 49

STATUTORY PLANNING POLICIES ...... 55

SUPPLEMENTARY GUIDELINES ...... 57

IMPLICATIONS OF CONSERVATION AREA STATUS ...... 58

REFERENCES ...... 60

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... 61 N e w T o w n C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a ct e r A p p r a i s a l

INTRODUCTION

Conservation Areas Section 61 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997, describes Conservation Areas as “... areas of special architectural or historic interest, the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance”. The Act makes provision for the designation of Conservation Areas as distinct from individual buildings, and planning authorities are required to determine which parts of their areas merit Conservation Area status.

There are currently 38 conservation areas in Edinburgh, including city centre areas, Victorian suburbs and former villages. Each Conservation Area has its own unique character and appearance.

Character Appraisals The protection of an area does not end with conservation area designation; rather designation demonstrates a commitment to positive action for the safeguarding and enhancement of character and appearance. The Planning Authority and the Scottish Executive are obliged to protect Conservation Areas from development that would adversely affect their special character. It is, therefore, important that both the authorities and other groups, who have an interest in Conservation Areas, are aware of those elements that must be preserved or enhanced.

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A Character Appraisal is seen as the best method of defining the key elements that contribute to the special historic and architectural character of an area.

It is intended that Character Appraisals will guide the local Planning Authority in making planning decisions and, where opportunities arise, preparing enhancement proposals. The Character Appraisal will be a material consideration when considering applications for development within the Conservation Area and applications for significant new developments should demonstrate how the proposals take account of the essential character of the area as identified in this document.

Planning and the Historic Environment (NPPG18) states that Conservation Area Character Appraisals should be prepared when reconsidering existing conservation area designations, promoting further designations or formulating enhancement schemes. The NPPG also specifies that Article 4 Direction Orders will not be confirmed unless a character appraisal is in place.

New Town Conservation Area The Conservation Area forms the northern section of the city centre of Edinburgh and its inner suburbs. It is 322ha (825 acres) in area, and approximately 3.7 kilometre (3 miles) wide west to east and 2 kilometres (1.25miles) north to south.

The Conservation Area was originally designated in 1977 and extended in 1980. A further amendment was made in 1995. The conservation area is classified as “Outstanding” under the 1997 Act for the purposes of grant aid.

The Conservation Area ranks as one of the most important in the United Kingdom, in terms of both its architectural and historic interest. Its significance is reflected in the extensive number of Statutory Listed Buildings, the number of tourists that visit the area, its ‘Outstanding’ status and its international recognition as part of the UNESCO designated Edinburgh Old and New Town World Heritage Site.

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NEW TOWN CONSERVATION AREA

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World Heritage Status All but the northern fringe of the Conservation Area is included in Edinburgh’s Old and New Town World Heritage Site which was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites list in 1995. This was in recognition of the outstanding architectural, historical and cultural importance of the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh.

Inscription as a World Heritage Site brings no additional statutory powers, however, it does commit all those involved with the development and management of the Site to ensure measures are taken to protect and enhance the area for future generations. In furthering these aims the Council has produced a World Heritage Site Manifesto, which is a material consideration in assessing planning applications.

In 1999 the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust was formed and this Character Appraisal should be read in conjunction with their Management Plan for the World Heritage Site.

WORLD HERITAGE SITE

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HISTORICAL ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT

1700 – 1750

During the 1600s and early 1700s, the population of Edinburgh grew considerably within the old walls of the city, producing conditions of squalid overcrowding. The Act of Union of 1707 and the suppression of the Jacobite insurgencies in 1715 and 1745 provided a settled political and economic climate that allowed Edinburgh to contemplate expansion beyond the City walls. In 1728, it had been suggested that the City expand northwards across a drained and bridged Nor’ Loch. However, the constraints of the Nor’ Loch meant that the initial expansion of the City focused towards the south, outside the Telfer and Flodden walls.

Before the building of North Bridge linking the Old Town and the New Town, the land to the north was characterised by open ground with a smattering of villages such as Broughton, Stockbridge, Canonmills, Dean, Picardy and Calton. All these villages were difficult to access from the Old Town due to the restraining influence of the Nor’ Loch and the hilly topography.

Little remains of the individual buildings that existed prior to the development of the New Town. The most significant buildings being the old Easter Coates House built in 1615, now St Mary’s Music School; Deanbank House in Deanbank Lane; the Earl of Leven’s 1765 Gayfield House in East London Street and St Cuthbert’s church founded in the 9th Century which was the church of a large parish surrounding the old city.

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1750 – 1800 In 1751 the Town Council produced a pamphlet entitled “Proposals for carrying on certain public works in the City of Edinburgh”. This document, strongly supported by the Lord Provost, George Drummond, proposed a New Town connected to the Old Town by a bridge. From the mid 1750s, the Town Council, through the Heriot Trust started buying up the lands beyond the Nor’ Loch. At this stage the Council had no ambitions to extend beyond what became the First New Town.

Draining of the Nor’ Loch began in 1759, with the foundation stone of the North Bridge laid in 1763. It was not until 1772 that the bridge became fully operational, due to an earlier collapse. The First New Town

The Council sponsored a competition to produce an overall plan for the new development in 1766. It was won by the 23 year old James Craig and developed in published form as a strikingly simple, doubly symmetrical grid layout. An Act of 1767 gave formal approval to the expansion of the Royalty of the City of Edinburgh.

Originally the layout reflected the social hierarchy of 18th century society, each class being given its due place, in striking contrast to the Old Town. At the same time the naming of the streets was a clear political statement celebrating the Union of England and Scotland under the Hanoverian Monarchy.

The streets are hierarchical in their width and the quality of design and finish. The three parallel streets of Princes, George and Queen Streets allied with Charlotte and St Andrew Squares are the grandest in Craig’s Plan, consisting originally

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of individual town houses. The cross streets contained more tenements and the intermediate streets and lanes contained artisan dwellings.

Construction began around 1770 with buildings at the east end of Queen Street and Thistle Street, and the sides of St Andrew Square. From here construction crept from east to west, entering Charlotte Square in 1792. In 1791, the Council commissioned Robert Adam to complete detailed plans and elevations for Charlotte Square to act as a detailed design guide. This resulted in the first New Town development to use a coherent palace block design to articulate an architectural unity across a number of individual properties, all controlled by Adam’s feuing plan. This First New Town, between Charlotte and St Andrew Squares, was substantially complete by 1830.

As the First New Town became increasingly successful, adjacent land owners began to consider similar ventures. As early as 1775, a Mr Walter Ferguson feued St James Square to the east of St Andrew Square.

Following closely on from this, the grounds of Gayfield House were feud in 1785 with the impressive tenement of Gayfield Place begun in 1790.

In 1799, the Heriot Trust, which owned much of the land to the north of the First New Town, feued York Place.

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1800 – 1830

The success of the First New Town stimulated a demand for further expansion that prompted a number of schemes which were as bold as the first. However, these were delayed by the Napoleonic Wars.

The Northern New Town During the 1780s, increasing interest was shown in developing the lands to the north of Queen Street Gardens and in 1800 the Town Council held a further competition for its layout. This competition was inconclusive and a composite layout was prepared by Sibbald and Reid.

In 1803 work commenced on this plan with its square, circus and subsidiary streets following the grid orientation of Craig’s First New Town.

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Building started in 1803, but progressed slowly until the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The plan underwent modification as building proceeded and in 1823 William Playfair ingeniously redesigned Royal Circus, awkwardly placed on a steeply sloping site. Feuing progressed well but the northern fringe was not completed until the 1880s.

Picardy A five acre site lying to the east of York Place was feued to a design by Robert Burn in 1803. This area framed by Broughton Street, Picardy Place, Union Street and East London Street was largely complete by 1809. The triangular development of Picardy Place was demolished in 1969 to accommodate a projected road scheme that was never implemented and resulted in a large roundabout.

The Western New Town Development began to the west of the First New Town in 1805. Shandwick Place, an extension of Princes Street, flanked by two wide crescents, was the first street to be built and was completed by 1825. The area north of Shandwick Place was developed from 1813 to a plan by Robert Brown, based on the now well-established gridplan, but with Melville Crescent as the only square set diagonally in the centre.

The Gayfield Estate From around 1807, Hugh Cairncross, a former assistant of Robert Adam, designed a layout for the Gayfield Estate which was less formal than the earlier New Town developments. Gayfield Square, a large rectangle opening onto Leith Walk contained tenement blocks, villas and a row of smaller houses, now replaced by a 1960’s police station, while Broughton Place was lined with two-storey palace blocks similar to Heriot Row but on a smaller scale.

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Stockbridge The expansion of the New Town impacted on the milling community of Stockbridge. From around 1813 growing prosperity increased the demand for property, leading to the incremental replacement and development of the village.

The Raeburn Estate In 1789, the painter Henry Raeburn, acquired the estate of Deanhaugh, northwest of the New Town. The estate was still somewhat out of town and accessible only by the bridge at Stockbridge. Construction began in 1813 to the west of Stockbridge under the direction of the architect James Milne. The first street built, named Ann Street after Raeburn’s wife, consisted of relatively modest three storey houses with extensive front gardens. Despite its location, the development after a slow start was successful, later sections being more conventionally urban in style as it was engulfed by the city.

The Moray Estates The estate of the Earl of Moray to the west of the Northern New Town remained open country. In 1822, with the demand for housing at its height, the Earl of Moray employed James Gillespie Graham to draw up a master plan for his estate. The estate, a relatively narrow strip of land sloping down to the Water of Leith was not the easiest on which to fit a classical layout. However, Gillespie Graham designed a self-contained enclave of exceptional quality which cleverly linked the First, Northern and Western New Towns. Development proceeded briskly, although the pace later slowed, with some houses not being built until 1855.

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Calton Hill East of the First New Town, across a steep valley, lay Calton Hill. On its summit was the Observatory House built between 1776 and 1792 and on the southern slopes the Bridewell or House of Correction. The decision in 1814 to site a felons’ prison next to the Bridewell prompted the Council to improve access to Calton Hill by building a bridge over the Calton valley. Work began in 1815 with Robert Stevenson appointed as engineer, and Archibald Elliot as architect. A single developer built all the buildings along Waterloo Place, ensuring that Elliot’s conception of a grand entrance to the city was consistently executed.

Improved access to the Calton Hill prompted the Town Council to conduct a competition for a design to develop the hill and its northern flank to Leith. Although the competition was inconclusive the Council accepted the guiding advice of their architect William Stark for a picturesque improvement following a plan and report of 1819 produced by his pupil William Henry Playfair.

Playfairs’ plan retained the hilltop as public open space with development of the hill limited to its midlevel, served by an extended Princes Street. A tree flanked, grand lower London Road was then brought through to link up with Leith Walk.

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The sides of the hill were to be clothed plainly and informally with a canopy of deciduous woodland. The street layout was set to converge on the hill to provide framed views of the woodland and hilltop skyline. Within this large composition Playfair created sweeping panoramas and important point vistas at differing heights up the hill.

Feuing of the mid level stances was not complete until the 1880s. The lower levels were never fully taken up and were given over to railways and other developments. The blocks to the immediate north, beyond London Road, were built to Playfair’s design intermittently between 1820 and the 1880s.

On the south side of the Hill, Thomas Hamilton in 1825 designed a new building for the Royal High School in a pure Greek Revival style, while the summit of the hill attracted a miscellaneous collection of monuments; to Nelson by Robert Burn (1807), Robert Burns by Hamilton (1830) Dugald Stewart by Playfair (1831), and most conspicuously, the National Monument, an incomplete replica of the Parthenon, erected in 1829 to a design by Cockerell and executed by Playfair, who had already topped the hill with his diminutive Greek observatory (1818). The Calton skyline, embellished with this distinguished ensemble of monuments, enhanced Edinburgh’s identity as the Athens of the North.

The Hope Estate Following the success of the Calton scheme, Major John Hope offered his land for feuing in 1824 – 5 to a scheme prepared by Robert Brown. However, demand slackened and only graceful fragments were produced.

Canonmills and Claremont Like Stockbridge, Canonmills was originally a milling community. Although a number of modest sized developments were started in the 1820s none of them were completed. Perhaps they were too remote and overambitious and consequently it was left to the Victorians to fill the gaps with lesser designs.

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1830 – 1900

The beginning of the Victorian era, in 1837, saw little change in the continued adoption of the general principles of a grid layout using crescents and gardens to provide a feeling of space and order. One change that had occurred with the advance of the Industrial Revolution was that streets for artisans were no longer prevalent. The artisans’ streets were replaced with mews buildings for stabling in the back lanes. This allowed the earlier hierarchy of street widths, facing gardens etc to be maintained.

Between the 1830s and 50s, development slowed throughout the City and when it did occur, it was in the form of extensions to existing developments.

The Dean Estate Following the completion, in 1831, of Thomas Telford’s Dean Bridge, which spanned the deep valley of the Water of Leith, a number of institutions such as the Dean Orphanage and Daniel Stewart’s School were built beyond the river. The building boom, however, had passed, and Learmonth’s hopes of a profitable housing development were not realised.

In the 1850s John Tait designed Oxford Terrace, Eton Terrace, Lennox Street and Clarendon Crescent northeast of Queensferry Road, taking advantage of the views afforded by the valley location. This was followed in 1860 by John Chesser’s Buckingham Terrace, set back behind a garden along the side of Queensferry Road. These were the first buildings in the New Town developments to incorporate bay windows. Belgrave Crescent by Alexander Macnaughten overlooking the valley followed in 1874 and Belgrave Place in 1880. Mirroring Buckingham Terrace on the other side of the road, Learmonth Terrace was built to designs by Chesser in 1873.

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Extensions to the Western New Town James Gillespie Graham was commissioned in 1826 to produce a layout to the north of Melville Street that would link to his grand design for the Moray Estate. This plan, for Chester Street, Rothesay Place and Drumsheugh, with some modifications, was not begun until the 1860s.

In 1865, a plan was produced for a double crescent (Grosvenor and Landsdowne) on the axis of Melville Street, entered from the south by Grosvenor Street and Roseberry Crescent. In 1872, John Chesser produced a plan for the ground to the north of the double crescent by designing another double crescent (Glencairn and Eglinton). The outward facing Douglas and Magdala Crescents close the scheme to the north and west.

Canonmills, Claremont and Hope All of the schemes in this area which began in the 1820s were never completed and only fragments were produced. It was left to the Victorians to pick up on what had been produced, but not necessarily to follow the original layouts.

Changes in the New Town From the beginning of the First New Town, retail and commercial uses were attracted to it. Princes Street became the principal shopping street with buildings being extended over the basement areas to give pavement frontage to commercial premises with new shop fronts. Gradually, with increasing demand, buildings were expanded at the rear and began to merge with buildings on Rose Street. The retailing on Princes Street expanded into Shandwick Place

George Street became a prime location for financial institutions and a number of Victorian banking halls and insurance offices spread from St Andrew Square westwards along George Street. At the same time, professional offices began to be located throughout the New Town.

In the 1840s, despite much opposition, railway lines disrupted Princes Street Gardens resulting in the later building of two large hotels, one at each end of Princes Street and each associated with its own railway line. The station at Waverley served the North British rail line and the station at Lothian Road served the Caledonian rail line

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By the 1900s, most of the New Town had been completed and there was a respite from large scale building until the period following the Second World War.

Post War Planning In 1949, Sir Patrick Abercrombie presented his civic survey and plan to Edinburgh Corporation. His plan recommended major changes to the city centre, including the remodelling of Princes Street in its entirety to regain the unity, which he felt, had been lost. These radical proposals were adopted by the Princes Street Panel in the 1950s, which devised a standard section for Princes Street. This segregated pedestrians from vehicular traffic, with a walkway at first floor level. Buildings using this approach are still evident. The demolition of St James Square and the insertion of a new road network through the Central Area were also recommended.

In 1970, a conference on the conservation of Georgian Edinburgh resulted in the formation of the Edinburgh New Town Conservation Committee and a consequent upsurge in conservation thinking and policies. This resulted in the abandonment of traffic proposals for the city centre proposed by Buchannan in the mid 1970s, which were a progression of Abercrombie’s proposals. However, this was insufficient to prevent the demolition of Picardy Place and St James Square. The former for road proposals, and the latter for a shopping centre.

From this point, a much greater emphasis was placed on conservation within the New Town, which was designated as a conservation area in 1977.

Recognition of the City’s unique heritage came with the inscription of the Old and New towns in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites in 1995.

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HISTORIC GROWTH OF THE NEW TOWN

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ANALYSIS AND ESSENTIAL CHARACTER

Site Context The New Town Conservation Area forms the northern part of Edinburgh’s City Centre, stretching some 3 miles from east to west and 1.25 miles from north to south. It is almost completely surrounded by conservation areas: Wester Coates and Dean to the West, Inverleith to the north, Leith to the east and the Old Town to the South. Topographically, the majority of the area sits on a north facing slope, although Calton Hill to the east forms a dramatic punctuation with the Water of Leith gorge acting as a counterpoint to the west the ground also slopes northeast towards Leith. From George Street, the ground falls dramatically south down to Princes Street Gardens, overlooked by the Castle and the Old Town. Only the Western New Town is laid out on flat ground. Linked grid layouts make use of the topography to achieve a cohesive, uniform urban whole.

Views A combination of the use of historic grid layout masterplans, allied to the good use of topography in these layouts, has produced a wide range of views and vistas that in some cases are spectacular. This is particularly true of southern views from the First New Town across Princes Street gardens to the Old Town Ridge. Views from the northern slopes provide stepped panoramic views towards and across the Firth of Forth. To the West, the view of St Mary’s cathedral spires is visible from many positions and is neatly juxtaposed to the east with the prominence of the monumented Calton Hill. Playfair’s scheme for Calton follows the contours of the hill and provides a terrace of prodigious length and great elegance that exploits spectacular views both to the north, the south, and west along Princes Street.

Within the grid layouts, terminated vistas have been planned, using churches, monuments, buildings and civic statuary, resulting in a plethora of landmark buildings. The generally uniform heights of the New Town ensure that the skyline is distinct and punctuated only by church spires, steeples and monuments. The uniformity of building heights, allied to the wide use of gardens within the grid layouts, provides a background against which important features of the City stand out and allows views across the city to be appreciated.

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Views - Essential Character • The City’s collection of civic statuary provides a focus and punctuation point for many vistas creating an outdoor sculpture gallery.

• The use of grid layout forms throughout the area provides a formal hierarchy of streets with controlled vistas and planned views.

• The central position, grid layout and uniform building heights make the area extremely sensitive to the effects of high buildings.

• Terminated vistas within the grid layouts and the long distance views across and out of the conservation area are an important feature.

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VISTAS AND VIEWS/FOCAL POINTS & LANDMARKS

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VISTAS AND VIEWS/FOCAL POINTS & LANDMARKS

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ROUTES AND APPROACHES

The construction of the New Town could not take place until a direct link was secured between the Old and New Towns with the building of North Bridge. As further phases of the New Town were developed; Dean Bridge, Waterloo Bridge and George IV Bridge improved linkages. This resulted in new roads which became the principal connections between Edinburgh and the surrounding country. The main approaches to the City were carefully designed to penetrate into the New Town.

Southern Approaches North Bridge and the Mound, original links between the Old and New Towns, provide principal routes to the south and the Borders. The access over North Bridge reveals the topography and character differences between the Old and New Towns and provides panoramic views to the east towards Arthur’s Seat and the coast in the distance. The end of the bridge is terminated by Robert Adam’s palace fronted Register House. The former GPO and North British Hotel frame the bridge at Princes Street.

The Mound, a causeway built up of spoil from the construction of the New Town between 1780 and 1830, divides Princes Street gardens into two sections. Playfair’s Galleries provide classical temples that sit in elegant isolation against the backdrop of the Old Town ridge.

London Road, the principal route from the south reaches the conservation area through Playfair’s Calton Scheme, giving an immediate introduction to the classical formality of the New Town.

The principal south western approach enters the New Town via Lothian Road with the Caledonian Hotel, which rivals the former North British in size, sitting on the western junction with Princes Street. The Churches of St John and St Cuthbert terminate West Princes Street Gardens.

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Eastern Approach Leith Walk, connecting the City with its sea port, enters the New Town Conservation Area at Haddington Place, which leads on to Playfair’s Elm Row and Gayfield Square. Playfairs’ London Road also provides a set piece entrance to the Conservation Area, linking through to Leith Walk.

Western Approaches The road to Glasgow skirts the Victorian development of the western New Town before swinging north east onto Haymarket Terrace and passing through the Georgian elegance of Coates and Atholl Crescents, to arrive via Shandwick place on Princes Street.

Queensferry Road, another western approach, takes advantage of Telford’s high level bridge of 1830 to avoid the original route, which wound down a steep valley to cross the Water of Leith.

Routes and Approaches - Essential Character • The importance of bridges as access routes into and within the New Town.

• All the major routes into the city converge on Princes Street.

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SPATIAL STRUCTURE

Driven by the grid plan of Craig’s New Town as a precedent and the topographical characteristics of the area, including the special relationship linking St Andrew and Charlotte Squares, George Street, the central monuments and the terminating buildings; each succeeding development has adopted the basic principles of a grid layout. These grid layouts, defined by perimeter blocks, were designed with a concern both for buildings and the public realm and the relationship between built form, streets and open spaces. The layouts are framed by the use of perimeter blocks, which are rectangular in the earlier schemes, but become curved and rounded to meet the grid requirements of later schemes.

The First and Northern New Towns generally have the same hollow square shape and size (perimeter block) while the later schemes have smaller hollow squares. The backlands to these hollow squares form large areas of open space within the conservation area and are significant features.

The encroachment of commerce and retail in the new town has resulted in the infill of the perimeter blocks; particularly along Princes Street, George Street and Shandwick Place.

The planned, formal use of gardens throughout the conservation area introduces punctuation, emphasises views and terminations, whilst providing informal amenity and recreational space within the discipline of the grid layouts.

Spatial Structure - Essential Character • The grid hierarchy of grand streets, lesser streets, lanes and mews throughout the conservation area.

• Formal geometric grid enclosed gardens and larger informal grid edge gardens soften the classical discipline of the buildings.

• Layouts follow the topography to create vistas and views both inward and outward, to and from, high ground all round and particularly northwards over the estuary.

• Landmark buildings, usually churches as well as monuments, establish formal punctuation.

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TOWNSCAPE

While there are a considerable number of prominent buildings and focal points in the area, the sloping topography means that punctuation above the skyline is limited. The features that are prominent and can be seen from many parts of the area are the Old Town Ridge, Calton Hill with its monuments, and St Mary’s Cathedral. Sitting alongside Calton Hill, the concrete development of the St James Centre forms an obtrusive element that can be seen from many points.

Princes Street gardens, with its Castle ridge backcloth, provides an open natural setting for a number of landmark buildings directly associated with Edinburgh. The magnificent Greek revival pavilion art galleries by Playfair sitting at the foot of the mound give credence to Edinburgh as the “Athens of the North”. Further to the east lies the familiar Gothic steeple of the Scott monument. The Balmoral Hotel completed in 1902 (formerly the North British) is a large quadrangular building, with a domed clock tower overlooking Waverley Station.

These features apart, the New Town is made up of a mix of town houses and tenemental buildings, usually following a sloping topography, and adopting a generally uniform height with only church spires projecting above them. Within the grid layouts, there are individual set pieces and important buildings that do not disturb the skyline. The New Town can also be viewed from above at locations such as the Castle and Calton Hill showing uniformity in design and materials. This makes the roofscape and skyline very sensitive to any modern intrusion rising above the uniform tenemental heights.

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Townscape - Essential Character • The Castle and the Old Town ridge form a dramatic southern edge to the conservation area.

• Within the conservation area, the monuments and observatory on Calton Hill to the east and St Mary’s Cathedral to the west provide the principal features that can be seen from most parts.

• Spires and steeples punctuate the area and help reinforce the character of the conservation area by respecting the uniform height of the tenemental blocks.

• The designed relationship of stone buildings, pavements and setted roads gives a disciplined unity and cohesion to the conservation area.

• In its location, height and bulk, the St James Centre is a particularly obtrusive development.

• The important contribution that the cohesive, historic skyline makes to the conservation area means that it is particularly crucial to control incremental creep in building height. Especially along skyline ridges.

• Views from above turn the New Town roofscape into a “fifth” elevation with a uniform design and use of materials, which needs to be protected.

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Building Forms The uniform character of the New Town is built up on the application of the standards for tenemental form, streets and public realm that were accepted and applied for over one hundred and fifty years.

The principal building form throughout the New Town is the hollow square, residential, tenemental block consisting of a sunken basement area with three to four storeys above. With the possible exception of Ann Street there are almost no front gardens.

Building Forms - Essential Character • The consistent relationship of the buildings and building line to the layout of streets and footways which retain the original street geometry and the original surfaces.

• Terraces of buildings with regular building plot widths.

• The consistent massing of buildings retaining the original building proportions - except along Princes Street, George Street and Shandwick Place where there has been historic and continuing pressure for the establishment of a new, larger form of building.

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Street Surfaces and Streetscape Design Streets and pavements are usually consistent in their width comprising a central parallel-sided carriageway defined by granite or whin drainage channels and stepped kerbs. Pavement and road widths are determined by the street hierarchy and have a consistent ratio based on where the street lies within the hierarchy. Carriageways are bounded on either side by pavements running back in an unbroken surface from the kerb to the building line, or stone base of railings guarding an open basement area. At road junctions, the carriageways meet at a simple and modestly scaled radius. Within the conservation area, the historic street pattern is largely intact. Initially pavements were flagged, probably with Hailes or Craigleith sandstone paving slabs, while carriageways were setted. Few pavements remain with stone flags, the majority being paved with precast concrete flags, but many setted streets remain. Some horonizing of pavements can still be found.

Only Princes Street has been the subject of significant change: the boundary has been moved back, leaving the Royal Scottish Academy protruding into the street. The pavement on the northern side of the street has also been significantly extended using basic materials and details.

Currently the issue of streetscape and street furniture is being reviewed and will be published as the Edinburgh Standards for Streets. This policy will establish standards for streetscape design, materials and street furniture to give a consistency to these items.

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Street Lighting The Local Authority first installed street lighting in 1785. In 1955, the Town Council began a ten-year programme to replace all surviving gas lighting with electric light throughout the city. The Council reinstalled and reinstated railing-mounted lamps in a few streets, such as the Mound and the south side of Princes Street. Elsewhere, many railing mounted lights still remain, some acting as arches over the entrance platt.

Several sandstone plinths for carriageway lights also survive (minus standards). Examples occur jutting out into the road on Howe Street and India Street. A number of late 19th and early 20th century free standing decorative cast iron standards, marked with the city crest also survive. Street Furniture Edinburgh has a tradition of robust and well designed street furniture: for instance the cast iron police boxes and road lamps designed by the City Architect, E J MacRae, in the 1930s to complement Edinburgh’s classical architecture. Where these items occur, they make an important contribution to the quality of the area. They can also provide a pattern for new furniture.

Unfortunately, there is a plethora of street signs, guard rails, parking meters and road markings that visually detract from the elegant layout of the conservation area. Further clutter such as cable TV equipment boxes, TV aerials and alarm boxes add to the detraction of the classical layout.

Streetscape - Essential character • There is extensive retention of original historic street surfaces, particularly roads surfaced in whin or granite setts and some high quality stone paving, which should be used as guiding references in new works.

• The extensive retention of items of historic street furniture such as railing mounted lighting, police boxes, telephone boxes etc.

• The presence of street clutter that visually detracts from the conservation area.

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ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER

The New Town conservation area is typified by formal plan layouts, spacious stone built terraces, broad streets and an overall classical elegance. The buildings are generally three or four storey and basement, with some four or five storey corner and central pavilions.

Little remains of what existed prior to the development of the New Town. The only significant buildings are the old Easter Coates House built in 1615, now St Mary’s Music School; Deanbank House in Deanbank Lane and the Earl of Leven’s 1765 Gayfield House in East London Street. The New Town is a creation of the late 18th and 19th century and is perhaps one of the finest examples of urban town planning of this period. Thistle Court at the eastern end of Thistle Street, reputedly built in 1768, is probably the earliest example of New Town architecture approaching its original state.

The majority of buildings are of a standard type that expresses Georgian ideals for urban living. The standard building form is of three main storeys over a sunken basement, normally three bays wide as well as three storeys high, including steps from street to basement and cellars under the pavement. This has resulted in a building stock of extraordinary quality which has proved to be both durable and capable of adapting both to the needs of changing residential standards, and to different uses.

Parts of the New Town can be characterised as being restrained or even austere, relying on their proportions regularity and repetitive design for their architectural effect. There is usually a high proportion of masonry to window opening on both the front and rear elevations. The facades reflect the internal planning of the buildings with larger balconies and lengthened windows to the drawing rooms at first floor level; entrance halls being lit by fanlights above the front door and stair lit by a cupola.

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There are a variety of masonry treatments on front and rear elevations, none of which were originally painted: polished ashlar(smooth); broached ashlar (horizontally tooled); droved ashlar (with fine banded tooling); stugged ashlar (lightly tooled with a masons’ punch or point); channelled V-jointed ashlar; vermiculated (as if eaten by worms); random rubble and squared rubble.

The legacy of the Local Authority relaxing height restrictions in the 1840s can be seen in the additional floors that were added to a significant number of buildings. Apart from a few of the very earliest properties, which are of rubblework stuccoed to represent ashlar, the street elevations of all buildings were in finely dressed squared ashlar of the durable local Craigleith sandstone. By the 1860s, improved transport led to the importing of significant quantities of cheaper and often softer stone.

The street elevations of each property typically followed a standard form of three or four evenly spaced vertically proportioned sash windows per storey, with a door at street level. Rear elevations were similarly laid out, but usually constructed of rubble masonry.

The Victorians changed the nature of Princes Street and George Street with their commercial buildings. However, when developing residential areas in the New Town they invariably followed the grid plan precedent set by Craig.

The 20th century’s contribution to the New Town has been muted by comparison with the Georgians and Victorians with a sprinkling of good modern buildings that make a positive contribution to the New Town.

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Roofs

Most roofs in the First New Town are steeply pitched, with a high central ridge. Roofs in later developments were more likely to have two parallel ridges making a double-pitched ‘M’ profile roof with a central leaded platt. A few roofs have an original mansard behind a balustrade, as seen at Henderson Row, Royal Terrace and Douglas Crescent. These were only popular towards the end of the nineteenth century. Chimneys and chimney pots occur on party and gable walls and cupolas are virtually universal over internal stairs. The roofs are covered with graded slate with lead flashings leading to parapet or valley gutters. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

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Windows Timber single glazed sash windows that slide vertically in a case or frame are typical throughout the area, the sashes being subdivided into smaller panes. There has been a longstanding Council policy to encourage windows to be painted white to maintain a unity of architectural schemes.

Doors and Entrances Doors and their ironmongery, overdoor lights and fanlights are a distinctive feature of the area occurring in an enormous variety of decorative designs. The doors consist of a simple four or six panel design and much of the original ironmongery has survived.

Platts Front doors are usually accessed from the street by one or more stone steps leading to a stone slab or platt bridging the ‘area’. This arrangement also reinforces the importance of the entrance whilst bridging the difference in level between the street and the entrance. The drop from the pavement to the area and the edge of the entrance steps and platt are protected by cast iron railings.

Cast Iron work Elaborate cast iron railings and balconies at first floor level are an important and characteristic feature throughout the conservation area, adding significant interest and rhythm to the facades. There is a long standing Council policy to encourage the painting of all iron work in black to maintain architectural unity.

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Mews and Lanes Craig’s New Town contained lanes that were composed of artisans’ dwellings, but as the expansions of the New Town took place, the original purpose of the lanes transferred to the provision of mews. These provided accommodation for stabling and coaches usually associated with the town houses on the streets that they lay behind. They are usually one and a half stories high, with a carriage entrance and sometimes a hayloft, both on the lane side.

They were usually built with a formal high quality design facing the house and an informal rubble elevation facing the lane of the mews.

Victorian Commercial Buildings In commercial areas, the pressure for more accommodation led, from the 1840s onwards, to the complete redevelopment of buildings. Early examples were usually built up to the back of the pavement, infilling the original basement area.

Although limited in height these buildings tend to be of a larger scale than their predecessors. Being Victorian, they are more ornate than the austere Georgian buildings they replaced, often having bay windows, decorated stone parapets and ornate detailing. In their proportion and horizontal and vertical modulation, they are similar to the earlier buildings, so the overall character of the area, although modified, remained essentially unchanged. Commercial buildings of this period were often of significant architectural merit.

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Shop Fronts The form and appearance of shop fronts make an important contribution to the appearance and character of certain parts of the area.

Streets of shops and artisans’ flats were included from the beginning of the New Town. These shops have survived on the fringes of the central area, such as Stockbridge and William Street. Within the central area, however, these early shopfronts have largely disappeared.

Victorian and early 20th century shop fronts incorporated fine and elaborate joinery, becoming more elegant and maximising display space.

With the post-war period, the availability of a wide range of new materials and changing architectural philosophy saw a change in shop front design. Shopfronts of this period are often extremely poorly designed and many are unsympathetic to the form of the buildings.

Architectural Character - Essential Character • The overwhelming retention of buildings in their original design form, allied to the standard format of residential buildings, strongly contributes to the character of the area.

• The retention of mews of mews and lanes, largely in their original form contributes to the character of the area.

• The encroachment of modern shop fronts which tend to be unsympathetic in design and materials

• The standard palette of materials including blonde sandstone, timber windows and pitched slated roofs.

• The importance of door, fanlight, window, cast iron work and stone surround details throughout the area.

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ACTIVITIES AND USES

First New Town The First New Town was planned to be a neighbourhood for elegant living. Non-residential buildings were confined to ancillary uses such as churches, or the Assembly Rooms. Shops and service buildings were confined to Rose Street, Hill Street and Thistle Street and to the hollow square backlands.

The new environment proved to be ideal for the developing retail trade and over the years Princes Street has become Edinburgh’s prime shopping street. This has resulted in the majority of the buildings now being in retail use; with office, leisure and hotel uses present on upper floors.

The importance of the First New Town as Edinburgh’s main shopping area is recognised and it is believed that it is possible to sustain and extend retail use in the area while maintaining its historic integrity. Since the Second World War, the significance of the City Centre in terms of its heritage has increased dramatically with annual festivals and a yearly influx of tourists.

North of Princes Street, Rose Street and George Street have considerable shop frontages, but retail use has not achieved the concentration of Princes Street. Further north, Thistle Street and Queen Street house a modest amount of retail use.

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Northern New Town, Moray and Dean Estates The Northern New Town, Moray and Dean Estates remain substantially residential in use. However, Dundas Street, Kerr Street and, to a lesser extent, Howe Street have a significant number of small shop units at street level. Office use is relatively common in some parts of the area, principally Heriot Row and Great King Street in the Northern New Town and Randolph Crescent, the southeastern quadrant of Ainslie Place and Moray Place and Forres Street in the Moray Estate.

Since the 1990s offices occupying former residential properties throughout the New Town have been reverting back to residential use.

Western New Town This area has been subject to increasing pressure from commercial uses. Shandwick Place, the western extension of Princes Street, has become a significant retail location with purpose built properties replacing the original Georgian houses. Less intensive retail use has also colonised Alva Street and William Street behind Shandwick Place and the cross streets of Stafford Street and Queensferry Street.

Adjacent to these retail areas, many of the original Georgian buildings are used for offices. In Rutland Square, Melville Street, Coates and Atholl Crescent the majority of buildings are now in office use.

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Gayfield Gayfield, standing between the main routes to Leith has always been varied in character. It is beyond the commercial core of the City Centre yet not wholly within a clearly residential area. As a result there has always been a substantial residential population living amongst other uses. This variety has been extended by redevelopment and by the conversion of residential property to office use.

Shop units occupy the street level accommodation along Leith Walk and Broughton Street and occasional shop uses are present in Union Street and in other locations. Gayfield Square is a notable office location as is Leith Walk, but both contain a considerable residential presence.

Calton Although retaining substantial residential use, this area has also attracted prestigious offices such as consulates, while a significant portion of Royal Terrace has become hotels, often involving merging adjacent properties. In either case, the exterior fabric of the terraces is largely intact. Regent Terrace remains primarily residential

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Stockbridge and the Raeburn Estate Stockbridge forms a neighbourhood shopping centre primarily based around small shop units in Raeburn Place. To the southeast, across the bridge, the shops in Kerr Street and Hamilton Place are similar but tend to be more specialist in character many of the shops have fine original shop fronts. The majority of property remains in residential use.

Activities and Uses - Essential Character • The importance of the city centre as a regional shopping centre.

• The presence of satellite shopping in Stockbridge, the West End and Broughton/Leith Walk.

• The strong and continuing presence of a residential community out with the central area.

• The flexibility of use of original townhouses.

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NATURAL HERITAGE

The most profound influence is the topography, as the formal designs were laid out without substantially altering the existing landform. This results in an area with extensive long distance views, landmarks, a deep river gorge and interesting building forms that respond to changes in level.

The most prominent natural landmark within the area, Calton Hill, is a crag and tail remnant of a volcano, which erupted 350 million years ago. This feature is part of the area that is designated as a composite SSSI ‘Site of Special Scientific Interest’ which includes Arthur’s Seat and the Castle Rock, notified for geological and biological interests.

The distinctive layout of Princes Street, George Street and Queen Street was very much dictated by a ridge, resulting in excellent views north to the Firth of Forth and south to the Old Town ridge

The Water of Leith is an important landscape feature and a key wildlife resource. It forms the principal wildlife corridor between the uplands of the Pentland Hills and lower Water of Leith Valley and is designated as an Urban Wildlife Site. The character of the river valley alters from a steep, wooded gorge in Dean Gardens to a flatter more urban river from Deanhaugh Street reflecting sharp changes in earlier sea levels.

The Walkway along the Water of Leith is one of Edinburgh’s major recreational resources and, as it passes through the enclosed, natural gorge, it provides a distinct feature area within the Conservation Area.

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New Town Gardens

The Conservation Area contains a series of 18th Century and 19th Century town gardens, squares and walks reflecting the area’s neo-classical town planning and picturesque tradition of landscape improvement. These gardens are of international significance and are designated in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes, a joint publication by Scottish Natural Heritage and Historic Scotland.

There are many shared garden enclosures within the New Town. They occupy about 13% of the New Town area, and considerably more if the edge open spaces are included. They contribute a value to the character of the conservation area far in excess of their area.

Most of these gardens are developed within the grid pattern and are bounded and shaped by woodland. The woodland offers side and terminal views, and also characteristic Georgian ‘peep’ views between the gardens and the surrounding buildings. The remaining gardens are developed on the edge of the grid. These include Calton hill, the Water of Leith gorge and the Waverley Valley. They are also shaped and bounded by woodland.

The design of all these gardens may be regarded as an inside-out version of an improved Georgian country parkland, evoking the ideal of feminine beauty which was created by the use of smooth curving lawns contained within an edge belt of billowing forest trees that allowed partial views of the house or the woodland outer edge.

The grid gardens have the billowing edge of trees and curving lawns but the relationship is reversed and the houses are on the outside of the of the ‘peep’ views. This is well represented by Moray Place gardens.

The woodlands of all these gardens provide a plain green billowing deciduous canopy of broadleaved hardwoods, some 5000 in all, and with a character and ecology based on the native woodlands that once grew there. The wooded landscape with its surrounding and enclosing buildings creates an unsurpassed example of uniquely British and late Georgian large-scale, urban, picturesque improvement.

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The rear private domestic gardens were often laid out informally with meandering paths and some tree planting around the outside and a central area of lawn. Some had vegetable patches and all generally had high stone boundary walls. Many of the original communal garden cast iron railings were removed for the war effort in 1940, and later replaced with inferior steel railings.

There are also important graveyards associated with St John’s, St Cuthbert’s and Calton Hill.

Most of the New Town Gardens were laid out on fertile farmland. A major influence on the design of the gardens was the growth and establishment of a thriving nursery trade in Edinburgh, growing from five in 1773 to 37 by the 1870s. In addition, between 1822 and 1824, the Royal Botanic Gardens moved to its current site and developed as a prestigious, innovative and influential horticultural institution.

St Andrew and Charlotte Square St Andrew Square was laid out in 1770, while Charlotte Square was not completed until 1808, although railings were erected around it in 1797. These gardens were laid out as formal geometric pleasure gardens providing a retreat for the surrounding owners.

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Princes Street Gardens

Princes Street Gardens lie in the valley separating the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh.

In 1776, the Town Council became responsible for the area of land, strategically placed between the Old and New Towns that was to become East Princes Street Gardens. It was not until 1829 that permanent ground works were carried out.

In 1844, the construction of Waverley Station and the railway cutting through the garden required a redesign of the gardens, which reopened in 1851. In 1903 the first floral clock in Britain was formed.

West Princes Street Gardens were formed at the insistence of residents of Princes Street who leased land from the Council. In 1820, James Skene’s plans were finally adopted and implemented by Alexander Henderson.

Between 1845 and 1847, the Edinburgh-Glasgow Railway Company took its line through the bottom of the gardens. In 1862, the owners added the spectacular Ross Fountain by A. Durenne of Paris.

By the 1870s, there were still about 400 private individuals who subscribed to use the garden, although properties in Princes Street had become almost entirely commercial. This caused public pressure for the Council to adopt the gardens, in 1876. 45 N e w T o w n C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a ct e r A p p r a i s a l

Queen Street Gardens Craig’s plan for the First New Town included a wide band of open space to the north of Queen Street. However, it took considerable time, starting in 1809, to form the gardens and safeguard the three Queen Street Gardens. This was finally achieved by a private Act of Parliament in 1822.

East Queen Street Gardens, commenced in 1814, and was the first of the three private pleasure gardens to be laid out. The original layout of the path arrangement has not survived. In 1868, the existing terrace was constructed to give generous views down the garden.

A design for Central Queen Street Gardens was submitted by Wilson in 1823, a proposal based on an appraisal of the site’s natural features which were enhanced in a simple and informal manner. The design included reforming a pond with a small rocky island in the middle of it. A tool house was also designed as a small Doric pavilion which forms an important feature in the formal garden east of the pond.

West Queen street gardens was also designed by Wilson and approved in 1823. As in East and Central Queen Street Gardens, a terrace was built to allow good views.

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Calton Hill The public open space, Calton Hill, is visible from a wide range of locations. Its monuments give it emphasis and a characteristic form. Panoramic views are obtained from Calton Hill and Regent Gardens to the Scott Monument and over the city and the Firth of Forth.

The Calton Hill Conservation Plan which was adopted by the Council in 2001 informs all decisions on the management and future of the public open space and monuments on the Hill.

Regent Gardens Regent Gardens were formed between 1830 and 1832, the feu charter having been granted in 1829. The gardens, the largest of the New Town gardens still in private ownership, are roughly triangular with the gardens of Regent Terrace and Royal Terrace backing on to the two long sides. The structure of the gardens remains very much as originally planned.

Dean Gardens In the 1860s, the area surrounding Dean Bridge was undergoing rapid development. Local residents successfully petitioned and purchased land for the provision of a private garden. The layout of the gardens allows picturesque views to St Bernard’s Well, a classical temple built on the site of a mineral spring.

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Natural Heritage - Essential Character

• A richly varied topography of ancient landform shaped by vulcanism and later by glacial scouring.

• Open space that creates a valuable resource for biodiversity throughout the area.

• Internationally important private and public open spaces lying within, and on the edge of a neoclassical grid pattern and reflecting the picturesque tradition of landscape improvement.

• Gardens with an exceptional setting.

• Gardens that create open and framed long distant picturesque views of exceptional quality.

• The presence of the Water of Leith and Calton Hill, grid edged gardens, that create naturalistic areas rich in biodiversity, the former a secluded river valley, unspoilt by development, an invaluable wildlife corridor, green wedge and major recreational resource that links the area to the Pentland Hills and Firth of Forth.

• The presence of high quality boundary elements, including random rubble walls and black railings in stone copings, often curved.

• A wooded landscape predominantly of round-crowned deciduous tree of forest scale.

• Complex management regimes for private gardens, due to multiple ownership.

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OPPORTUNITIES FOR ENHANCEMENT

The Character Appraisal emphasises the more positive aspects of character in order that the future can build on what is best within the Conservation Area. The quality of urban, architectural and landscape design needs to be continuously improved if the character of the Conservation Area is to be enhanced. The retention of good quality buildings and open spaces, allied to the sensitive interpretation of traditional spatial structures in securing appropriate new development, are of particular importance.

This Character Appraisal stands alongside the World Heritage Site Management Plan. Both documents complement and reinforce each other. The latter document sets out those elements of significance that make up the Outstanding Universal Value of the World Heritage Site and then identifies the risks that these might face. The values are:

Landscape • Setting and views. • Juxtaposition of the Old and New Towns. • Valley of the Water of Leith, Waverley and Calton Hill.

Urban Form and Architecture • Contrasting Characters. • The Outstanding Townscape. • Outstanding Buildings. • Interiors. • Statues and Monuments. • Parks, Gardens and Graveyards.

History and Heritage • Historic City and Ancient Capital of Scotland. • Communities. • Association with People of World Recognition. • Edinburgh - Festival City.

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In considering action to mitigate risks and improve the area, it is important that both documents do not solely focus on a narrow range of conservation policies, but recognise the balance between the Council’s strong conservation and heritage policies and those intended to maintain the City Centre as a viable economic entity, including the regionally important City Centre shopping area. The area must respond to the challenges of a capital city centre.

The aims are set out in Edinburgh City Centre - Charting a Way Forward:

• Selective redevelopment opportunities will be clearly defined and promoted to encourage the creation of additional high quality retail floorspace. At the same time an effective balance between shopping, leisure, living and working within the city centre needs to be maintained.

• Improved pedestrian linkages will be forged between different parts of the city centre to enhance geographical connectivity, social integration, and connection between different activities.

• Continuing investment in the public realm will be secured to preserve that unique sense of place, create the conditions for a vibrant yet safe street life, and encourage continuing private sector developments and improvements. Commitment to a rigorous and exacting maintenance regime needs to be agreed by all parties, along with funding.

• Trouble-free accessibility of the city centre from other places by various modes will continue to be pursued -new and integrated public transport facilities, new walking and cycling routes, more welcoming transport interchanges, and improved car parking arrangements.

Moreover, these aims are entirely consistent with sustainability - car dependency reduced, encouragement to use public transport, renewal of the heart of the city - and with environmental protection - safeguarding our most precious asset, our world class environment. The more detailed heritage and conservation requirements to safeguard this are set out on page 50.

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The Council’s Cultural Policy, approved in 1999, states under Objective 8 that the aim is “to preserve and interpret Edinburgh’s heritage” which goes on to state:

“Edinburgh has an important built and natural heritage. The Old and First New Town areas of the city have been designated as a United Nations World Heritage Site. Working with others, the Council believes it isimportant to foster the public interest in the City’s heritage. This will be achieved through –

• Preserving and enhancing the City’s built heritage.

• Arranging displays on aspects of the City’s history.

• Carrying out archaeological and social history research.

• Developing close links between the City’s schools and its museums and galleries.

• Maintaining and encouraging the enjoyment of the City’s natural heritage of parks and open spaces.

• Interpreting the City’s architectural and historical background and identifying ways of making it more accessible to the public.

• Collecting and preserving artefacts relating to the City’s heritage”.

General The presumption of retaining and reusing buildings of merit within the area must continue. Allied to priority being given to restoring and regenerating buildings through a process of high quality repair

Public Realm The streets of the New Town form a key component of the geometric hierarchy of the area. The public realm should be of the highest quality in terms of the materials used. Transport requirements should respect the original street layout and should follow the guidelines contained in the “Edinburgh Standards for Streets.” Temporary layouts using cheap materials should be avoided.

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The City has recognised the importance of the public realm and is currently embarking on a programme of enhancement work. The first schemes under consideration are in Castle Street and St Andrew Square and should be regarded as the first phase of a prolonged programme of enhancement.

The proposals for a tram running through the city centre present a challenge in terms of integrating the infrastructure with the historic environment. This will require careful design and a Tram Design Manual has been produced to provide guidance.

Street furniture and road markings can detract substantially from the public realm. Strong efforts should be made to reduce the clutter that currently exists and future proposals should be guided by the “Edinburgh Standards for Streets.”

Where adequate evidence of original designs of kerbs, railings, lights and balconies exists, encouragement should continue to be given to their preservation and reinstatement. Shop Fronts Encouragement should be given to improving the quality of the shop fronts in the area, particularly that minority of shop fronts which are particularly poorly or inappropriately designed or badly maintained.

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Natural Heritage Measures to further protect and enhance the river valley of the Water of Leith should be pursued, whilst complementing its designation as an Urban Wildlife Site in accordance with the Edinburgh Biodiversity Action Plan, NPPG 14 and its historic character.

Control of New Development The Local Authority should continue to insist that new development within the area is of the highest design quality. New development should:

• Fit within and complement the urban grain and massing characteristics of the area they are located in.

• Make use of the existing historic palette of building materials, particularly natural stone.

• Retain and reinforce the standard plot widths and height of street elevations, avoiding long single elevations, even where larger land packages have been assembled.

• Wherever possible native deciduous tree planting should be encouraged.

• Retain the character of the New Town Gardens, with use of predominantly round-crowned forest scale species of trees and avoid the use of coniferous, purple, gold and silver variegated forms of deciduous tree.

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High Buildings The current policy is under review, however, the New Town has very consistent heights and a cohesive skyline and is particularly susceptible to buildings that break the prevailing roof and eaves height and impinge on the many important views. It is also important to protect the character of the conservation area from the potentially damaging impact of high buildings outside the conservation area. These factors will be taken into account in the emerging High Buildings Policy.

Role of the Public It is essential that property owners accept their maintenance responsibilities. The emphasis should be on the repair rather than replacement of original features, as these contribute to the conservation area’s character as a whole. Alterations or additions should be sympathetic to the original style and of an appropriate scale. A significant reference for maintenance is “The Care and Conservation of Georgian Houses” by Davey, Heath, Hodges, Ketchin and Milne.

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STATUTORY PLANNING POLICIES

The New Town Conservation Area lies wholly within the area covered by the Central Edinburgh Local Plan (adopted in May 1997). This conservation area contains Edinburgh’s city centre and as such there are a significant number of policies contained in the plan.

The Central Edinburgh Local Plan will be superceeded by the Edinburgh City Local Plan, which is due for adoption in 2009.

Supplementary to the Central Edinburgh Local Plan is the World Heritage Site Conservation Manifesto. The objective of the Manifesto is to assist in preserving the historic fabric of the World Heritage Site and ensure that changes complement and enhance its special character.

Conservation Area Within the Conservation Area, the existing architectural character, historic and landscape character is to be preserved and enhanced.

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Open Space Princes Street gardens, Queen Street gardens and the formal squares, crescents and circuses scattered throughout the area are regarded as open spaces of outstanding landscape quality and townscape significance where no development will be allowed. The Water of Leith valley is also covered by policies that declare the valley as an urban wildlife site and promote the enhancement of its amenity and recreational value. Calton Hill is a Site of Special Scientific Interest where no development is to be allowed. Retail Edinburgh city centre is of regional significance in terms of its shopping and leisure facilities. The area stretching from Princes Street to Rose Street is identified as the City Centre retail core where proposals for redevelopment should primarily provide for shopping. Some frontages along Rose Street and George Street are identified as secondary where a maximum of 40% of non retail use will be allowed. Secondary frontages are also found on Queensferry Street, Shandwick Place and Stockbridge. The latter, identified as a District shopping centre, is interlaced with speciality shopping, whose character is to be protected, along with primary shopping where a maximum of 20% non retail would be allowed. Broughton Street and Rodney Street are identified as Local Centres where shopping development of a suitable scale would be allowed.

Office Core Rose Street to Queen Street, including York Place, the St James Centre, Picardy and Waterloo Place are included in an Office Core designation which seeks the retention of office use subject to other important city centre uses being retained. Mixed Activities The West End up to Palmerston Place is designated as a mixed activities zone where the emphasis is on promoting an appropriate mix of activities which contribute to local character and vitality.

The extreme West End and the whole of the Northern New Town is designated for Housing and Compatible Uses. This policy identifies mainly residential areas in which the existing residential character and amenities are to be safeguarded.

56 New Town C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a ct e r A p p r a i s a l

Main Tourist Approaches These are identified as London Road, Queensferry Road and Haymarket Terrace, where limited Hotel/Guest House use will be allowed.

Light Rapid Transit (Tram) Safeguarding a route identified as travelling up Leith Walk to York Place, turning into St Andrew Square, down onto Princes Street and out to Haymarket Station and the west end.

SUPPLEMENTARY GUIDELINES

The Council also produces supplementary planning guidance on a range of development control issues. These are contained within the Development Quality Handbook.

57 N e w T o w n C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a ct e r A p p r a i s a l

IMPLICATIONS OF CONSERVATION AREA STATUS

Designation as a conservation area has the following implications:

• Permitted development rights under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Scotland) Order 1992 are restricted. Planning permission is, therefore, required for stone cleaning, external painting, roof alterations and the formation of hard surfaces. The area of extensions to dwelling houses which may be erected without consent, is also restricted to 16m² and there are additional controls over satellite dishes.

• Under Article 4 of the Town and Country Planning (GeneralPermitted Development) (Scotland) Order 1992, the planning authority can seek approval of the Scottish Ministers for Directions that restrict permitted development rights. The Directions effectively control the proliferation of relatively minor alterations to buildings in conservation areas that can cumulatively lead to erosion of character and appearance.

• Development is not precluded, but such alterations will require planning permission and special attention will be paid to the potential effect of proposals. The New Town Conservation Area is currently covered by the full range of Article 4 Directions:

Class 1 enlargement, improvement or other alteration to a dwelling house Class 3 provision or alteration of buildings or enclosures within the curtilage of a dwelling house Class 6 installation, alteration or replacement of a satellite dish Class 7 construction or alteration of gates, fences, walls or other means of enclosure Class 30/33 local authority development Class 38 water undertakings Class 39 development by public gas supplier Class 41 development by tramway or road transport undertakings Class 40 development by electricity statutory undertaker Class 67 development by telecommunications code system operators • Special attention must be paid to the character and appearance ofthe conservation area when planning controls are being exercised. Most

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applications for planning permission for alterations will, therefore, be advertised for public comment and any views expressed must be taken into account when making a decision on the application.

• Buildings, which are not statutory listed, can normally be demolished without approval under the Planning Regulations.Within conservation areas the demolition of unlisted buildings requires conservation area consent. Alterations to windows are controlled in terms of the Council’s policy.

• Trees within conservation areas are covered by the Town and Country (Scotland) Act 1972, as amended by the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997. The Act applies to the uprooting, felling or lopping of a tree having a diameter exceeding 75mm at apoint 1.5m above ground level, and concerns the lopping of trees as much as removal. The planning authority must be given six weeks notice of the intention to uproot, fell or lop trees. Failure to give notice renders the person liable to the same penalties as for contravention of a TPO.

• Edinburgh World Heritage administers grants for the external repair of buildings within the area and enhancement of the Site’s public realm.

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REFERENCES

Perspectives of the Scottish City – ed George Gordon

Georgian Edinburgh – Ian G Lindsay

The Buildings of Scotland, Edinburgh – J.Gifford, C.McWilliam, D.Walker.

The Care and Conservation of Georgian Houses – Davey, Heath, Hodges, Ketchin, Milne.

The Making of Classical Edinburgh – A.J.Youngson RIAS Illustrated Architectural Guide – Charles McKean James Craig 1744 – 1795 - eds. Kitty Cruft and Andrew Fraser

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, Historic Scotland and the Cockburn Association have made a significant contribution to the production of this Appraisal and this is acknowledged with thanks.

61 This document is available on request in Braille, tape, large print various computer formats and community languages. Please contact ITS on 0131 242 8181 and quote ref. 03756 For additional English copies please contact City Development enquiries on 0131 529 3900.

Andrew M Holmes Director of City Development The City of Edinburgh Council Waverly Court 4 East Market Street Edinburgh EH8 8BG

Produced by the City Development Department: Planning & Strategy

ISBN 1 85191 072 7 Portobello Conservation Area Character Appraisal Portobello Conservation Area Character Appraisal

Contents

Historical Maps 2

Aerial Map 4

Structure Map & Special Characteristics 5

Summary information 6

Conservation Area Character Appraisals 7

Historical origins and development 8

Character Zones - Structure 11

Management - legislation, policies and guidance 22

Management Opportunities 27

1 Portobello Conservation Area Historical Maps Character Appraisal

Great Reform Act 1832

John Wood 1824

2 Portobello Conservation Area Historical Maps Character Appraisal

Old & New Edinburgh 1890

Post Office Directory 1917

3 Portobello Conservation Area Aerial Map Character Appraisal

4 Portobello Conservation Area Structure Map & Special Characteristics Character Appraisal

Key Conservation Area Boundary

Open/Green Space

Views

Vistas

G Glimpse

T Terminated View G Grid Plan

Landmarks (click icon for image) T G Main Focal Point G (click icon for image)

G G

G

T

5 Portobello Summary information Conservation Area Character Appraisal

Location and boundaries Dates of designation/amendments

Portobello lies on the coast, some four miles east of the centre of Edinburgh, between The original Portobello Conservation Area Leith and Musselburgh. was designated on 13th October 1977. The original boundary was amended in July The Conservation Area is enclosed to the north-east by the sea and to the south-west by 1985 and again in February 1998. The first Sir Harry Lauder Road, which creates a visual and physical boundary for the Conservation Portobello Conservation Area Character Area as far as Windsor Place. At this point, the boundary turns north down Windsor Place Appraisal was competed in May 2000. and excludes the housing on the former Mount Lodge Estate. The north western and south eastern boundaries are less well defined: the north western boundary being generally defined by Beach Lane on the north side of the High Street and to the rear of Adelphi Place Statement of significance properties on the south side of the High Street, and the south-east boundary extending to Portobello retains the character of a the end of Joppa Road taking in Dalkeith Street and Morton Street. small town with a distinct town centre, an exceptionally high quality residential The boundaries of the Conservation Area were examined through the appraisal process. At hinterland, a shoreline setting and a long the north western edge of the Conservation Area is an important element of Promenade, sea-front promenade. The architectural beach and foreshore that signifies the approach and entrance to the Conservation form and character of Portobello is rich Area and includes the two surviving historic kilns. This area has been included in the and varied, with many fine Georgian and Conservation Area. Victorian historic buildings. The building The Conservation Area falls within the Ward boundary of Portobello/Craigmillar. There are materials are traditional: stone, harling, in the order of 4,500 people living within the Conservation Area and approximately 1,700 slate, pantiles, timber windows and doors. residential units.

6 Portobello Conservation Area Character Appraisals Conservation Area Character Appraisal

Purpose of character appraisals - why do we need them? How to use this document

Conservation area character appraisals are intended to help manage change. They provide The analysis of Portobello’s character and appearance focuses on the features which an agreed basis of understanding of what makes an area special. This understanding make the area special and distinctive. This is divided into two sections: Structure, which informs and provides the context in which decisions can be made on proposals which may describes and draws conclusions regarding the overall organisation and macro-scale affect that character. An enhanced level of understanding, combined with appropriate features of the area; and Key Elements, which examines the smaller-scale features and management tools, ensures that change and development sustains and respects the details which fit within the structure. qualities and special characteristics of the area. This document is not intended to give prescriptive instructions on what designs or “When effectively managed, conservation areas can anchor thriving communities, sustain styles will be acceptable in the area. Instead, it can be used to ensure that the design of cultural heritage, generate wealth and prosperity and add to quality of life. To realise an alteration or addition is based on an informed interpretation of context. This context this potential many of them need to continue to adapt and develop in response to should be considered in conjunction with the relevant Local Development Plan policies the modern-day needs and aspirations of living and working communities. This means and planning guidance. The Management section outlines the policy and legislation accommodating physical, social and economic change for the better. relevant to decision-making in the area. Issues specific to Portobello are discussed in more detail and recommendations or opportunities identified. Physical change in conservation areas does not necessarily need to replicate its surroundings. The challenge is to ensure that all new development respects, enhances and has a positive impact on the area. Physical and land use change in conservation areas should always be founded on a detailed understanding of the historic and urban design context.” From PAN 71, Conservation Area Management. http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2004/12/20450/49052

7 Portobello Historical origins and development Conservation Area Character Appraisal

Origins and Development

Portobello takes its name from the Spanish port of Puerto Bello on the Isthmus of Panama. In a notable offensive of 1739, the port was captured by a British fleet under Admiral Vernon. In the 1740s, George Hamilton, one of the sailors involved in the battle, built a house four miles east of Edinburgh which he named his “Portobello Hut” after the battle of Puerto Bello.

In 1765, rich clay deposits were discovered just to the west of the Figgate Burn and this led to the establishment of brick, glass and pottery works, a soapworks, a white lead works, and associated workers’ housing. The earliest reference to Portobello appears in ‘The History of Edinburgh’ by Hugo Arnot, published in 1779. Arnot refers to Mr William Jamieson’s brickworks in the area. William Jamieson was a local entrepreneur who built several large villas in the area at this time. Of the large houses built during this period, only one, now with much altered, survives.

In 1787, local industry was further stimulated by the founding of a small harbour at the mouth of the Figgate Burn and, by 1811, Thomas Bonar’s ‘Plan of Edinburgh and Leith with the Roads Adjacent’ shows some 90 buildings under the heading ‘Village of Portobello’.

Portobello developed significantly in the 18th century, not only because of its industry but due to its popularity as a bathing and spa resort. Discovery of mineral wells added to the village’s attraction and in the early years of the 19th century, elegant residential terraces were developed, mainly between the High Street and the sea. Bath Street and Tower Street (Figgate Street) were laid out in 1801-1802, and Regent Street and Wellington Street (Marlborough Street) in 1815-1816.

The next phase included the building of Melville Street (Bellfield Street), Pitt Street (Pittville Street) and John Street, designed by the architect Robert Brown who lived in Pitt Street. The Brighton/Rosefield area was developed and built by a local builder, John Baxter. This area is one of the most attractive in Portobello, the uniform facades with their linking screen walls giving these streets considerable distinction.

8 Portobello Conservation Area Character Appraisal

Portobello was established both as a fashionable summer resort and as an attractive place to stay all year round. The population census of 1831 gives a population of 2,781 residents within 517 houses, which was swelled by an additional summer population of not less than 2,000.

Building continued eastwards towards Joppa from the 1830s onwards and also south of the High Street until the end of the century, with rows of Georgian terraces gradually giving way to Victorian semi-detached and detached houses.

As the 19th century progressed, the Georgian two storey buildings on the north side of the High Street became punctuated by larger Victorian tenements. The scale and symmetry of the streets between the High Street and the Promenade were also compromised to a degree. Some villas were demolished and their grounds redeveloped.

Many Georgian streets, such as Bath Street and Marlborough Street, now contain large Victorian tenements, some of them spectacular - Windsor Mansions (1899) in Straiton Place and St. James’s Terrace (1870) in Bath Street are two examples. Several of these tenements were built in red sandstone, contrasting with the grey stone of the original Georgian buildings.

The Regency Spa Town became both a Victorian suburb of Edinburgh - the Burgh

Reform Act of 1896 had seen Portobello incorporated into the City of Edinburgh - and a Victorian sea-side resort, popular with day trippers from Edinburgh and Glasgow. The establishment of rail and tram links increased the popularity of Portobello as a holiday destination.

Prior to the construction of the Promenade, gardens and garden walls extended down to the beach and the seafront was not easily accessible to the public. The first section of the Promenade was completed in the 1850s, from Bath Street to Melville Street. It was extended in the 1860s but was swept away twice by storms and was eventually completed in 1891. A 1,200 foot pier was opened in 1871 (demolished 1917) which included a restaurant, shops and kiosks.

9 Portobello Conservation Area Character Appraisal

A number of fine individual buildings were built at the start of the 20th century - notably the baths in Bellfield Street (1901); the Town Hall (1911) and St. John’s Roman Catholic Church in Brighton Place (1906), the spire of which dominates the town’s skyline.

Between the wars, when Portobello was in its heyday, a number of buildings were constructed in the modern style. The former cinema in Bath Street remains, but the Open Air Swimming Pool (1936) was demolished in the 1980s.

The whole area between Figgate Street and Bridge Street, north of the High Street, was redeveloped between 1976 and 1980. The Marlborough Mansions (1899), near the foot of Bath Street, were demolished in the 1960s as part of proposals to widen the Promenade. By the 1960s, the number of tourists visiting Portobello reduced significantly and many of the shops and kiosks, which were once a feature on the Promenade, closed.

Portobello retains a heritage of fine buildings from all stages of its history, most notably the elegant Georgian terraces and the complementary fringe of Victorian and Edwardian buildings. The layering of high quality development from different eras makes a major contribution to the character of the Conservation Area. The town retains a recognisable seaside character with its long promenade, reclaimed and improved beach, and amusement arcade. It has a thriving resident population of around 4,500 and remains popular with visitors - on fine summer days the beach and promenade are crowded with day-trippers.

10 Portobello Character Zones - Structure Conservation Area Character Appraisal The Conservation Area includes three areas of distinctly different character:

The High Street provides the commercial and administrative focus for the Conservation Area retaining many original two storey Georgian buildings as well as a number of significant public buildings.

The vehicle free Promenade, beach, cafes and amusement arcades highlight Portobello’s character as a seaside resort.

The remainder of the Conservation Area constitutes Portobello’s main residential zone and includes an abundance of fine Georgian villas as well as a robust stock of Victorian villas and tenements which contribute to the suburban character.

Structure Development Pattern The High Street

click image for further details The High street is an identified shopping Side streets running perpendicularly from centre. the High Street down to the Promenade.

Streets Spaces Views

The street is predominantly a mixture of Abercorn Park is an attractive green space. Streets and lanes leading to the small scale Georgian buildings and larger Promenade offer views of the sea from the Victorian tenements. High Street.

11 Portobello Character Zones - Structure Conservation Area Structure Character Appraisal The High street is an identified shopping centre that provide a diverse mix of commercial activities and in which retail frontages are protected. Key objectives involve encouraging regeneration to attract investors and generate new employment opportunities, promoting good quality design and enhancing existing quality.

Development pattern

The High Street forms a wide curving linear spine parallel to the sea with side streets running perpendicularly from it down to the Promenade. Commercial activity on Bath Street helps to draw visitors down them towards the sea. The architectural quality of the High Street is exemplified by individual buildings such as the Town Hall, the Police Station and the Georgian terraced shops with first floor housing in the eastern section

The building heights along the north side of the High Street show a high degree of uniformity, reflecting the planned Georgian development. This contrasts with the south side of the street, where building heights vary along the entire length from single storey to four storey.

There are few 20th century buildings on the south side of the High Street except a large residential conversion and further flats in the eastern section and shops and flats in the western section. All of these more recent additions are set back from the building line with the exception of the flatted block adjacent to the former Windsor Place Church.

Streets

Approaching from the west, the High Street is generally linear before curving significantly to the east of the Bath Street/Brighton Place junction. It then curves almost imperceptibly in the other direction before straightening out as it runs into Abercorn Terrace. Whilst the actual width of the street varies little throughout its length, at various points on the south side buildings have been set back from the building line - these are mostly 20th century developments - and the road widened to allow for parking. This gives these areas an air of spaciousness and helps to induce expectation and a sense of arrival in the town centre.

The street is predominantly a mixture of small scale Georgian buildings and larger Victorian tenements, with shops at ground floor and residential flats above. On the north side of

12 Portobello Character Zones - Structure Conservation Area the street, between Figgate Burn and Bath Street, the building height varies significantly, Character Appraisal ranging from single storey shops to four storey tenements. East of Bath Street, the buildings are predominantly two storey with the notable exception of a three storey block at the extreme east end and the four storey tenement at the junction with Marlborough Street. There are a number of buildings which contribute to the character of the area and give focus to the townscape - the Town Hall and Police Station add variety to the facades of the High Street shop fronts.

A number of original windows remain on the upper floors, however, there are a significant number of inappropriate replacement windows

There a small number of original or historic shop fronts along the High Street, however, the majority now have modern single paned, non-traditional frames with flush doors. Over- deep fascias, garish paint and inappropriate signage further detract from the character of the Conservation Area.

The street is at its widest between Rosefield Avenue and Brighton Place. This area has a sense of being an important place for people to congregate; benches on both sides of the street and the grouping of the town’s main bank, Town Hall and Police Station all contribute to this feeling.

The High Street shops represent the bulk of the shopping facilities in the Conservation Area and provide a focus of activity for the community. The shops are mainly independent retail units catering for local needs. The shops in the High Street extend from Figgate Burn to Pittville Street on the north side with some commercial uses continuing down Bath Street. On the south side, the shops extend from Adelphi Grove to east of Marlborough Street with some shops returning down the east side of Brighton Place as far as Lee Crescent.

The commercial section of the High Street is centred on its crossroads with Brighton Place/Bath Street, and extends eastwards to Pittville Street and westwards to Kings Road, with some residential interruptions.

The spaces between the buildings are predominantly in tarmac (roads) and concrete slabs (pavements). However, soft landscaping in the form of trees is located on the south side of the High Street to the front and side of the bank.

13 Portobello Character Zones - Structure Conservation Area

Spaces Character Appraisal

The buildings are set back significantly at the western entrance to the Conservation Area and to the east of Marlborough Street. The greater width at the entrance to the Conservation Area results from the grouping of residential blocks set back from the road. This area, although not part of the Conservation Area, accentuates the sense of arrival in the High Street as the building line returns sharply at the junction with Adelphi Grove, creating a sense of the street narrowing. At the east end of the High Street, the shops start at Pittville Street on the north side, the narrowing of the road and the forward building line east of Marlborough Street confirms the entry to a commercial area.

Abercorn Park is an attractive green space lined by elm, whitebeam, holly and hawthorn which forms a prominent break in the building line on the High Street.

Views

Streets and lanes leading to the Promenade offer views of the sea from the High Street. The spires of churches are distinctive landmarks and prominent in views along the High Street.

Key Elements Spine with secondary streets running perpendicular. A recognised shopping centre. Uniform height terraces to the north of the High Street. Views of the sea at various points along the street. A number of landmark buildings. Building lines to the heel of the pavement. A mix of uses, mostly with residential on upper floors. Variation in building periods, types and heights to the south of the High Street. The predominant building material in the High Street is natural stone which varies in colour, texture and condition. A number of good quality original and historic shop fronts.

14 Portobello Character Zones - Structure Conservation Area Character Appraisal Promenade/Beach The beach, along with the Promenade, are significant amenities which emphasise Portobello’s reputation and character as a seaside resort.

Development Pattern Spaces Views

click image for further details There is a rich mix of building styles Today, the Promenade is an important The Promenade provides panoramic vistas fronting, or slightly set back from the part of Edinburgh’s waterfront and forms a to the coast of Fife, back towards the City Promenade. popular pedestrian route. and Leith, and down to the East Lothian countryside and North Berwick Law.

15 Portobello Character Zones - Structure Conservation Area Character Appraisal Development Pattern

There is a rich mix of building styles fronting, or slightly set back from the Promenade. The form of development has resulted in buildings some of which have their frontages to the Promenade and others their rear elevations. These include single storey Georgian houses, two storey Victorian terraced properties, large two to three storey detached Victorian villas and four storey Victorian tenements. There are also two modern residential developments: a pair of two storey semi-detached houses (1990) at Straiton Place and a block of flats (1996) at the bottom of Pittville Street.

In addition to the residential properties described above, there are a number of other buildings along the Promenade related to the seaside leisure industry - the Public Baths on the Promenade (1901) in red sandstone with a long front, two curving gables and first floor timber balconies.

The Tower, in Figgate Lane, was built in 1785, possibly by William Jamieson as a summerhouse for John Cunningham. It is an unusual octagonal castellated gothic building and is constructed in sandstone with red brick dressings.

Spaces

Today, the Promenade is an important part of Edinburgh’s waterfront and forms a popular pedestrian route, which, along with the well maintained sandy beach, emphasises Portobello’s seaside resort character. This character is maintained despite the loss of the pier in 1917 which was constructed around the same time as the Promenade.

The Promenade starts at the bottom of Kings Road following the edge of the sea and curving significantly before becoming part of the Conservation Area at Figgate Lane. Its width alters according to the building line and opens out between John Street and James Street and at three points between James Street and the end of the Promenade.

The surface of the Promenade is predominantly red tarmac with a thin grey concrete strip adjacent to the low concrete wall forming the physical boundary between the beach and the Promenade. The red tarmac does not have a uniform appearance due to patch repairs in a different colour.

16 Portobello Character Zones - Structure Conservation Area Character Appraisal The unifying streetscape elements are the low concrete wall to the beach side, the Views predominantly red tarmac surface and the benches and bollards, where each street or The Promenade provides panoramic vistas lane meets the Promenade. to the coast of Fife, back towards the City There are also a number of public grassed areas between Bath Street and John Street with and Leith, and down to the East Lothian the larger area also incorporating a children’s playground and a community garden with countryside and North Berwick Law. restored Coade stone pillars. An additional small grassed area is located adjacent to the north west boundary of the area. There is also a hard-landscaped children’s play area to the north west of the Promenade.

The front gardens of residential properties set back from the Promenade, and generally enclosed by varying heights of stone wall, represent the predominant form of soft landscaping on the Promenade.

The Conservation Area extends eastward to include the beach as Portobello’s coastal location was integral to its development. The beach is generally well-maintained and clean.

Key Elements Linear traffic free walkway with open views of Fife and North Berwick Law. Open views to the sea. Predominance of stone built properties, many with front doors to the Promenade, and generally retaining their original features. The predominant roof covering is slate. Good quality stone boundary walls. Easy access from side streets/lanes. Seasonal seaside attractions and indoor swimming pool. Well maintained sandy beach. Beach protected by groins.

17 Portobello Character Zones - Structure Conservation Area Character Appraisal Residential Zone Includes an abundance of fine Georgian villas as well as a robust stock of Victorian villas and tenements which contribute to the suburban character. Development Pattern Streets

click image for further details In the early part of the 19th century, The residential areas have a generosity of residential development took place in four space that provide a tranquil character. distinct areas of Portobello.

Georgian Development Victorian Development

Houses have small front gardens with low Tenemental development began to invade stone boundary walls. some of the streets laid out in the early part of the century.

18 Portobello Character Zones - Structure Conservation Area Character Appraisal Development pattern

In the early part of the 19th century, residential development took place in four distinct areas of Portobello. By far the main development took place between 1800 and 1825 on the north side of the High Street, where streets were laid out on a grid plan, progressing from east to west. The next important area to be developed was on the south side of the High Street in the Brighton and Rosefield area. Two other small groups of houses were also built in this period; villas and part of a classic terrace in Windsor Place and several houses, mainly semi-detached, on the south side of Joppa Road, west of Morton Street.

In the Victorian period, residential development continued eastwards on both sides of the High Street. In the 1840s and 1850s, houses in a neo-classical style were built in James Street, Abercorn Terrace, Dalkeith Street and Elcho Terrace.

As the century progressed, buildings displayed a greater variety of styles and influences, including Baronial and, by the turn of the century, terraces of plain two-storey houses with bow windows at the east end of Joppa.

By this time, several detached houses in Bath Street and Marlborough Street had been demolished and these sites and other gap sites were filled with large Victorian tenements. These tenements, often in red sandstone and many displaying a profusion of exuberant carved detailing, overwhelmed their modest Georgian neighbours. Gap sites in other Georgian streets to the east were also filled with two storey houses, for example, the east side of Bellfield Street.

Residential development also continued eastwards along the Promenade where several grand villas in the French and Italian styles were built as well as large tenement blocks.

Thomas Tough, a local pottery owner, built housing in the Adelphi Place area around 1850-1860 to house his workers. As fashionable housing was being built towards the east, areas to the west, on the north side of the High Street, were filled with cheaper housing of a much higher density.

Development has changed the character of parts of the Conservation area, particularly within lanes and back-land areas, and further pressure for this type of development may arise in the future.

19 Portobello Character Zones - Structure Conservation Area Character Appraisal Streets

The residential areas, whether they are Georgian with a classical layout and restrained architecture, or Victorian with more informal layouts and exuberant designs, have a generosity of space that provide a tranquil character.

Georgian Development - Streets are generally relatively narrow, although they tend to become wider towards the east. Houses have small front gardens with low stone boundary walls, originally with cast iron railings (some of which have recently been replaced). Back gardens are much larger and are bounded by high stone walls.

On the north side of the High Street, the majority of Georgian streets run at right angles north towards the Promenade. Most of these streets are serviced by back lanes which originally provided access to stables and mews buildings. This grid plan layout is not repeated on the south side of the High Street where East and West Brighton Crescent cross over Brighton Place in a sweeping curve. This has resulted in a less formal layout and interesting vistas. Brighton Place is the main entrance into the Conservation Area from Duddingston and is the only remaining setted street.

A wide range of classical detailing is used. Two storey houses generally have five windows on the front elevation. Semi-detached houses often have paired doorcases, with Roman Doric pilasters. Ground floor elevations can be rusticated or smooth ashlar. There are many other variations including gothic style windows and timber external shutters.

The houses on the south side of Joppa Road, west of Morton Street are built in a variety of styles. However, they reverse the normal practice, having high stone front garden walls and large front gardens, with smaller rear gardens. This took advantage of what was originally an open outlook at the front over the Firth of Forth. The Brighton and Rosefield area (circa 1823) is one of the least altered and most East of Morton Street, on the south side of Joppa Road, is a long low terrace of workers’ architecturally important areas of Portobello. The area displays a distinctive unity of houses. Few houses of this type built in the early part of the nineteenth century survive in style as John Baxter, the builder, provided designs for the elevations of the houses. either Portobello or Joppa. These are single storey, built in stone (some with later modern Distinguished one and two storey villas are linked by single storey wings, the two facings) and roofed with red Georgian property pantiles (some having later slate roofs) on storey properties being rusticated at ground floor. The single storey villas and villas Pitville Street. with basements have doorways in both wings and houses which are within segmentally arched recesses.

20 Portobello Character Zones - Structure Conservation Area Character Appraisal Victorian Development - Streets became wider in the Victorian era, continuing the pattern of small front gardens and larger back gardens. Most streets were serviced by back lanes, although the railway line prevented this from happening on the south side of Argyle Crescent.

In the early Victorian period, houses continued to be built in the classical style. Both houses and gardens became bigger as development progressed eastwards. However, by the end of the century, houses became increasingly smaller in scale and detailing tended to become less elegant.

Gradually a greater variety of building styles came to be used. The baronial style can frequently be seen, with canted bay windows beneath steep gables. Many houses incorporate barge boarding and others decorative cast-iron balconies.

Tenemental development began to invade some of the streets laid out in the early part of the century, notably Marlborough Street, Straiton Place and Bath Street, the latter now containing a rich mixture of building styles from all eras.

Overall, the more exuberant approach to house construction adopted by the Victorians has, in places, resulted in a disparity of scale between the neat and ordered Georgian Key Elements villas and the grand decorative flourish of the Victorian tenements. This has created an interesting but restless and fragmented character. Strong formal patterns of Georgian housing eg. grids, crescents, squares and associated open space. St. John’s Roman Catholic Church in Brighton Place is the most prominent of Portobello’s Overlapping and less formal patterns of Victorian housing often of more exuberant churches. Designed by J.T. Walford and dating from 1906, it is a highly individual building, design demonstrating a range of interesting street corner treatments. mixing Gothic and Arts and Crafts styles, and its octagonal pinnacle towers dominate the High quality architecture. town’s skyline. Views of the sea from the streets leading down from Abercorn Terrace/ Joppa Road. Predominant use of traditional building materials: stone, slate, timber sash and case windows. Stone retaining and separating walls, some with original railing pattern. Variations in plot sizes and building types, heights, spacing and setbacks from the pavement. Small scale cottages with narrow plot widths at the west and east ends of the Conservation Area. System of narrow lanes and access ways between streets.

21 Portobello Management - legislation, policies and guidance Conservation Area Character Appraisal Conservation Areas Planning guidance

The Planning (Listed Buildings and efforts to retain the building and the relative More detailed, subject-specific guidance is Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 public benefit of replacement proposals. set out in Planning Guidance documents. states that Conservation Areas “are areas Conservation Area character appraisals are Those particularly relevant to the Portobello of special architectural or historic interest, a material consideration when considering Conservation Area are: the character or appearance of which it is applications for development within desirable to preserve or enhance”. Local Conservation Areas. • Guidance for Householders authorities have a statutory duty to identify and designate such areas. • Guidance for Businesses Listed buildings • Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas Special attention must be paid to A significant number of buildings within the the character and appearance of the Portobello Conservation Area are listed for • Developer contributions and affordable Conservation Area when planning controls their special architectural or historic interest housing are being exercised. Conservation Area and are protected under the Planning status brings a number of special controls: (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) • Edinburgh Design guidance (Scotland) Act 1997. Listed building consent • The demolition of unlisted buildings • Communications Infrastructure requires Conservation Area consent. is required for the demolition of a listed building, or its alteration or extension in • Street Design Guidance • Permitted development rights, which any manner which would affect its special In addition, a number of statutory tools allow improvements or alterations to the character. external appearance of dwellinghouses are available to assist development and flatted dwellings, are removed. management within the Conservation Area.

• Works to trees are controlled (see Trees for more detail).

The demolition of unlisted buildings requires Conservation Area consent and the removal of buildings which make a positive contribution to the area is only permitted in exceptional circumstances, and where the proposals meet certain criteria relating to condition, conservation deficit, adequacy of

22 Portobello Management - Legislation, policies and guidance Conservation Area Character Appraisal GPDO and Article 4 Directions pier, harbour, water transport, or canal of development or change of use of land or inland navigation undertakings. which is likely to damage or prejudice The Town and Country Planning (General the future long term existence of trees Permitted Development) (Scotland) 38 Development by statutory undertakers covered by a TPO. The removal of trees for Order 1992, amended 2012, (abbreviated for the purpose of water undertakings. arboricultural reasons will not imply that the to GPDO), restricts the types of 39 Development by a public gas supplier. space created by their removal can be used development which can be carried out in for development. a Conservation Area without the need for 40 Development by an electricity statutory planning permission. These include most undertaker. Trees in the City contains a set of policies alterations to the external appearance of with an action plan used to guide the dwellinghouses and flats. Development management of the Council’s trees and Trees is not precluded, but such alterations will woodlands. require planning permission and special Trees within Conservation Areas are attention will be paid to the potential effect covered by the Town and Country Planning of proposals. (Scotland) Act 1997 as amended by the Planning (etc) Act 2006. This Act applies Under Article 4 of the GPDO the planning to the uprooting, felling or lopping of a authority can seek the approval of the tree having a diameter exceeding 75mm Scottish Ministers for Directions that restrict at a point 1.5m above ground level. The development rights further. The Directions planning authority must be given six weeks’ effectively control the proliferation notice of the intention to uproot, fell or lop of relatively minor developments in trees. Failure to give notice will render the Conservation Areas which can cumulatively person liable to the same penalties as for lead to the erosion of character and contravention of a Tree Preservation Order appearance. Portobello Conservation (TPO). Area has Article 4 Directions covering the following classes of development: Tree Preservation Orders are made under planning legislation to protect individual 7 The erection, construction, and groups of trees considered important maintenance, improvement or for amenity or because of their cultural or alteration of a gate, fence, wall or other historic interest. When assessing amenity, means of enclosure. the importance of trees as wildlife habitats 35 Development on operational land by will be taken into consideration. There is statutory undertakers in respect of dock, a strong presumption against any form

23 Portobello Management - Assessing Development within Conservation Areas Conservation Area Character Appraisal General Criteria New Buildings

General issues to be taken into account The development of new buildings in a property. Very careful consideration will in assessing development proposals Conservation Area should be a stimulus to be required for alterations and extensions in a Conservation Area include the imaginative, high quality design, and seen affecting the roof of a property, as these may appropriateness of the overall massing as an opportunity to enhance the area. be particularly detrimental to the character of development, its scale (the expression What is important is not that new buildings and appearance of the Conservation Area. of size indicated by the windows, doors, should directly imitate earlier styles, rather floor heights, and other identifiable units), that they should be designed with respect Definition of ‘Character’ and ‘Appearance’ its proportions and its relationship with for their context, as part of a larger whole its context i.e. whether it sits comfortably. which has a well-established character and Conservation areas are places of special Development should be in harmony with, appearance of its own. Therefore, while architectural or historic interest, the or complimentary to, its neighbours having development of a gap site in a traditional character and appearance of which it is regard to the adjoining architectural terrace may require a very sensitive design desirable to preserve or enhance. styles. The use of materials generally approach to maintain the overall integrity The character of an area is the combination matching those which are historically of the area; in other cases modern designs of features and qualities which contribute dominant in the area is important, as is the sympathetic and complimentary to the to the intrinsic worth of an area and make need for the development not to have a existing character of the area may be it distinctive. Special character does not visually disruptive impact on the existing acceptable. derive only from the quality of buildings. townscape. It should also, as far as possible, Elements such as the historic layout of fit into the “grain” of the Conservation Alterations and Extensions roads, paths and boundaries, paving Area, for example, by respecting historic materials, urban grain and more intangible layout, street patterns or existing land Proposals for the alteration or extension features, such as smells and noises which form. It is also important where new uses of properties in a Conservation Area are unique to the area, may all contribute are proposed that these respect the unique will normally be acceptable where they to the local scene. Conservation area character and general ambience of the are sensitive to the existing building, in designation is the means of recognising Conservation Area, for example certain keeping with the character and appearance the importance of all these factors and of developments may adversely affect the of the particular area and do not prejudice ensuring that planning decisions address character of a Conservation Area through the amenities of adjacent properties. these qualities. noise, nuisance and general disturbance. Extensions should be subservient to the building, of an appropriate scale, use Appearance is more limited and relates appropriate materials and should normally to the way individual features within the be located on the rear elevations of a conservation area look.

24 Portobello Management -Landscape & Biodiversity Conservation Area Character Appraisal Care and attention should be paid in the Carboniferous Period. and tile works across the mouth of the distinguishing between the impact Figgate Burn over the following 18th and The beach and foreshore within the of proposed developments on both 19th centuries. As a result, by the end of Conservation Area are part of the Firth of the character and appearance of the the 19th century Portobello had became Forth Special Protection Area for their value conservation area. one of Scotland’s most significant industrial as an estuarine and coastal habitat for the potteries of which the scheduled early There are several open spaces which wintering population of wading birds and 20th century pottery kilns built in 1906 contribute to the townscape pattern of the wild fowl. and 1909 are the last residual remnants. A area - squares, parks, the Figgate Burn, and These sensitive nature conservation sites wider range of associated industries were the beach. Brighton Park and Abercorn Park must be considered if affected by any also attracted to the area including: glass are part of a formal structure surrounded by development proposal. works, a soap works, a white lead works residential streets and gardens. Rosefield and associated workers’ houses. The early Park through which the Figgate Burn runs, industrial development of the Portobello has a less formal layout. Potteries was aided by the foundation of a The Council has an obligation to take Management - Archaeology small harbour at the mouth of the Figgate account of the impact of development Prior to the mid 18th century Portobello Burn in 1787 - the remains of the harbour on species protected by legislation and appears to have remained relatively survive under the present beach, on the international commitments. The Nature undeveloped as an area of coastal sand eastern side of the Figgate Burn. Recent Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 places dunes and farmland, bisected by the excavations across the site of the former a duty on all public bodies to further the medieval coastal road linking Leith to potteries demonstrated that, despite the conservation of biodiversity as far as is Musselburgh. This historic road may have demolition of the former pottery buildings consistent with their functions. had earlier Roman origins, as the coastal and redevelopment for housing in the road linking the 2nd century AD Roman forts 1970s, extensive archaeological remains The Figgate Burn is designated as a Local at Cramond and Inveresk (Musselburgh). survive across the area. Biodiversity Site for its value as a mixed habitat wetland for its amenity grassland, Development at Portobello commenced In addition to the area’s important industrial broadleaved plantation, semi-natural in earnest in 1765 when William Jamieson, heritage, the historic core of Portobello is broadleaved woodland, standing water and an Edinburgh architect and speculative of archaeological interest in its own right running water. A small section of the beach builder feued his first parcel of land from in terms of the social development of the to the east of the Conservation Area is part Baron William Muir of Caldwell to set up settlement from its 18th century origins of the Joppa Shore Geodiversity Site which a pottery to utilise the recently discovered through to the 20th century. Excavations is designated for its geological interest rich clay deposits to the west of the Figgate in advance of the new extension to Tower including sedimentary rocks of the Upper Burn. This early industrial pottery expanded Bank Primary school unearthed the remains Limestone Formation and coal measures of with the addition of new potteries and brick of former Georgian housing providing

25 Portobello Management - Archaeology Conservation Area Character Appraisal an important insight into the early Townscape and Architectural character or, where acceptable, appropriate development of the town. development. Portobello originally developed as a Portobello is considered to be an area of settlement based on industry. In the The area is characterised by the rows of Although there are a small number of archaeological significance principally in Victorian period, it became established as a Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian villas, original or historic shop fronts along the terms of both its industrial heritage and prosperous seaside resort. The town initially terraces and tenements in a variety of styles High Street and Promenade, the majority its development during the 18th and 19th grew rapidly as a resort increasing in size with the use of blonde and red sandstones now have modern single paned, non- centuries. Depending on the scale and every year with little regularity or uniformity. helping to unify the distinct building traditional frames with flush doors. These impact of any development proposal, the From the middle of the 19th Century there periods within the area. Contemporary frontages fail to relate to the upper floors City of Edinburgh Council Archaeology was a greater planning of the layout of developments have tended to utilise non- and are discordant notes within the street Service (CECAS) may recommend a pre- the streets and building. This has resulted traditional materials that can adversely scene. Over-deep fascias, garish paint and determination evaluation in order to in a varied spatial structure, townscape affect the character of the area if used inappropriate signage further detract from assess the presence and significance of and architectural character providing an indiscriminately or excessively. Multiple the character of the Conservation Area. any surviving archaeological deposits and interesting blend of layouts, tenures and similar developments in close proximity to determine the scope of any required architectural styles. Careful attention now can have a negative cumulative effect on mitigation including preservation and needs to be paid to the extent and type character. interpretation. Similarly for works affecting of development and particularly to the A number of gable ends of properties, standing structures of historic significance, amount of land which is built on. predominantly at junctions with streets a programme of archaeological building Some recent development, mostly leading off the High Street, are in very assessment and recording may be at the ends of streets has tended to poor condition due to unsightly and patchy recommended. negatively impact on the scale, proportion rendering, poor or unfinished repair works and permeability that are part of the and peeling paint. Management - Pressures and Conservation Area’s essential character. Sensitivities A small number of original windows remain The sites on the Promenade that formerly on the upper floors, their generally poor The following pressures are associated accommodated the ghost train, to the condition combined with the presence with development proposals which front of Bath Place, and the paddling of a significant number of inappropriate Conservation Area designation, together pool, at the corner of John Street, are now replacement windows means that the upper with the Council’s policies and guidance, well maintained landscaped areas and floors of the High Street present a rather are designed to manage. The Edinburgh represent a marked improvement in terms poor image within the street scene. This is Design Guidance, Guidance for of townscape quality. However, the edge of exacerbated by the significant number of Householders and Listed Buildings and the sites to the Promenade would benefit original chimneys that have been replaced Conservation Areas explain the Council’s from improved boundary treatments in brick and render, and the general lack of approach to design in historic contexts. maintenance to stonework and paintwork.

26 Management - Pressures Management - Opportunities Management - Opportunities Portobello and Sensitivities for Development for Planning Action Conservation Area

Streetscape Character Appraisal

The High Street has benefitted from a Small-scale development opportunities The diverse quality of the architecture of resurfacing of pedestrian walkways as part for infill or replacement may arise within Portobello creates a need for a sensitivity of a previous Town Centre Regeneration the area, and will be considered in terms of approach to any new development or Fund Programme. However, the use of a of the relevant guidance. No sites within intervention. Most importantly, the design variety of sizes of concrete paviors in the the Conservation Area are identified for of new buildings or interventions should be context of the Conservation Area does not significant housing or other development based on a sound understanding of context. support a simple palette of materials as through local development plans. Policy DES1 of the Edinburgh City Local promoted by the street design guidance. Development of a significant scale is unlikely Plan and Proposed Local Development The streetscape of the High Street includes to take place within the Conservation Area. Plan requires that design should be based a proliferation of bus stops, lamp posts, However, it is recognised that development on an overall design concept that draws on litter bins, benches, telephone boxes and has changed the character of parts of the positive characteristics of the surrounding other services which can appear cluttered Conservation Area over time, particularly at area to create or reinforce a sense of place. in places. the peripheries of private open spaces or within lanes and back-land areas, and further The Council’s planning guidance generally There are a number of unifying streetscape pressure for this type of development may states a presumption for sandstone and elements along the Promenade, notably arise in the future. other traditional, natural materials where these form the predominant palette in the the street furniture such as the cast iron surroundings of the development. High benches, decorative bollards and the low quality, innovative modern designs and dividing wall to the beachside. However, materials are not precluded, but proposals the red asphalt surface is basic, with repair must be able to demonstrate their respect work in black asphalt leaving a patchy for the historic character of the host appearance. building and the area. The cumulative The diverse range of boundary treatments effect of multiple developments within the along the Promenade is in many cases same street or area should be taken into mismatched and of poor quality in terms of account. their scale, design and the materials.

27 Management - Opportunities Management - Opportunities Portobello for Planning Action for Enhancement Conservation Area Character Appraisal Conservation Area boundaries Natural environment

The boundaries of the Conservation Area The areas of open space on the Promenade Enhancing the walking and cycling have been examined through the appraisal at the foot of Marlborough Street and to the environment provides an opportunity to process. north east of Figgate Bank would benefit promote the unique and valuable open from enhanced landscaping and planting, space and natural landscape characteristics At the north western edge of the and improvements to the boundary fencing. of the area. The aims of the Edinburgh Conservation Area is an important element The full potential of these pieces of land as Biodiversity Action Plan should be of Promenade, beach and foreshore that areas of accessible amenity space should considered in any enhancement proposal signifies the approach and entrance to the be more thoroughly realised. throughout the area. Conservation Area and includes the two surviving historic kilns. This area has been The concrete cap covering the main sewer included in the Conservation Area. on the Promenade towards the bottom of Malborough Street locally known as the ‘cake stand’ would benefit from attention with the potential installation of an appropriate piece of public art.

Roads and transport

Road safety, traffic management and parking are identified as priority issues in the Portobello Neighbourhood Plan along with enhanced walking and cycling opportunities. The unique characteristics of the streetscape of the area should be protected and enhanced in any road and transport proposals. Interventions should be planned and designed taking account of their broader context in order to reinforce the sense of place. This will also involve minimising visual clutter, avoiding generic, ‘off-the-peg’ solutions, and protecting traditional surface materials and design details.

28 Portobello Conservation Area Character Appraisal

REFERENCES

Arnot, Hugh (1779), The History of Edinburgh.

Baird,William (1898), Annals of Duddingston and Portobello.

Mekie, Margeorie (1999), Old Portobello.

Statistical Accounts for the parish of Duddingston in the years 1791/99 and 1846.

Scottish Ethnology: The development of Portobello as a seaside resort (1990).

Old and New Edinburgh (1979).

29 Portobello Conservation Area Character Appraisal

For further information please contact:

[email protected]

0131 529 4238

30

The South Side Conservation Area Character Appraisal was approved by the Planning Committee on 8 August 2002

Some of the maps in the document have been reproduced from the Ordnance Survey mapping with permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office

© Crown Copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown Copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. OS License No. LA09027L. ISBN 1 85191 053 0 South Side C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a c t e r A p p r a i s a l

Contents

Contents ...... 3

Introduction ...... 4 Conservation Areas ...... 4 Character Appraisal ...... 4 South Side Conservation Area ...... 5 Conservation Area Boundary ...... 6

Historical Origins And Development ...... 8

Analysis And Essential Character ...... 12 Site Context and Views ...... 12 Focal Points and Landmarks ...... 14 Routes ...... 15 Natural Heritage ...... 16 Natural Heritage Designations ...... 17 Site of Special Scientific Interest ...... 18 Green Belt ...... 18 Neighbourhood Nature Area ...... 18 Trees ...... 19 Expansion Areas ...... 20 First Expansion Area ...... 22 Second Expansion Area - George Square (Town and Gown) ...... 28 Third Expansion Area ...... 34 Fourth Expansion Area ...... 39

Opportunities For Enhancement ...... 44 Development Opportunity Sites ...... 44 Squares and Open Spaces ...... 45 Street Enhancements ...... 46 Shop Front Improvements ...... 46 Wheelie Bins ...... 46 Role of the Public ...... 46

General Information ...... 47 Statutory Policies ...... 47 Supplementary Guidelines ...... 47 Implications Of Conservation Area Status ...... 48

References ...... 50 South Side C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a c t e r A p p r a i s a l

Introduction

Conservation Areas

Section 61 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997, describes conservation areas as “... areas of special architectural or historic interest, the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance”. The Act makes provision for the designation of conservation areas as distinct from individual buildings, and planning authorities are required to determine which parts of their areas merit conservation area status.

There are currently 38 conservation areas in Edinburgh, including city centre areas, Victorian suburbs and former villages. Each conservation area has its own unique character and appearance.

Character Appraisal

The protection of an area does not end with conservation area designation; rather designation demonstrates a commitment to positive action for the safeguarding and enhancement of character and appearance. The planning authority and the Scottish Executive are obliged to protect conservation areas from development that would adversely affect their special character. It is, therefore, important that both the authorities and other groups who have an interest in conservation areas, and residents are aware of those elements that must be preserved or enhanced.

A Character Appraisal is seen as the best method of defining the key elements that contribute to the special historic and architectural character of an area.

It is intended that Character Appraisals will guide the local planning authority in making planning decisions and, where opportunities arise, preparing enhancement proposals. The Character Appraisal will be a material consideration when considering applications for development within the conservation area and applications for significant new developments should be accompanied by a contextual analysis that demonstrates how the proposals take account of the essential character of the area as identified in this document.

NPPG 18: Planning and the Historic Environment states that Conservation Area Character Appraisals should be prepared when reconsidering existing conservation area designations, promoting further designations or formulating enhancement schemes. The NPPG also specifies that Article 4 Direction Orders will not be confirmed unless a character appraisal is in place.

 South Side C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a c t e r A p p r a i s a l

South Side Conservation Area

The South Side lies immediately adjacent to the Old Town on the south east side of the city.

The South Side Conservation Area was originally designated in 1976 and extended in 1986. A further amendment was approved in 1996.

The Conservation area falls within Wards 33, 48 and 50

 South Side C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a c t e r A p p r a i s a l

Conservation Area Boundary

The South Side Conservation Area lies immediately to the south of the line of the defensive walls to the city formed by the Flodden Wall built between 1514 - 1560 and extended by the Telfer Wall built between 1628 - 1636. A clear space was left on the inside of the wall of 12 ft and on the outside of 24ft. This external space was used later for roads, forming the street pattern of today. Consequently, the northern boundary of the conservation area formed by Drummond Street, South College Street, Bristo Port, Bristo Place and Teviot Place follows the line of the defensive walls.

Gates, or ports, at Potterow, Bristo Port and latterly Forrest Road punctuated these walls. These gates were served by two roads approaching from the south, one following the line of Dalkeith Road/Pleasance and the other following the line of Causewayside/Buccleuch Street.

The South Side shares a common boundary to the North with the Old Town Conservation Area. However, at this point the two conservation areas are overlaid by the World Heritage Site, whose boundary lies further south and bites into the South Side and Marchmont and Meadows conservation areas.

The Western boundary is formed by Middle Meadow Walk leading directly onto the Meadows whose northern edge continues the boundary of the conservation area onto Buccleuch Street where the boundary swings southwards following Sciennes. The boundary then follows Braid Place eastwards onto Causewayside swinging south till it meets Salisbury Place and runs along the back of Salisbury Road to meet Dalkeith Road. At this point the boundary moves generally northwards to rejoin Drummond Street taking irregular extensions eastwards to take in Parkside Street, St Leonard’s Bank, the Deaconess Hospital and University buildings off the Pleasance.

The Edinburgh World Heritage Site boundary overlaps the South Side Conservation Area. Starting in the middle of Middle Meadow Walk, it runs eastward to include the northern part of George Square before running up the west side of Bristo Street car park and then turns east into Nicolson Square. The boundary then crosses Nicolson Street to run down Hill Place, turns north up Richmond Place and then east down Adam Street to meet the Pleasance. Everything to the North of this boundary is contained within the World Heritage Site.

 South Side C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a c t e r A p p r a i s a l

It should be noted that the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust plays a significant part within the World Heritage Site. Currently the Trust are preparing a management plan, an essential part of which will be the inclusion of the conservation area character assessments that cover the World Heritage Site.

 South Side C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a c t e r A p p r a i s a l

Historical Origins And Development

Up to 1700 the area lying to the south of Edinburgh, beyond the City walls, was characterised by scattered houses, open fields and some ribbon development. This stretched along the southern approach roads of Potter Row, Buccleuch Street, Pleasance and also Roxburgh Place and Richmond Place, which led to a tower in the Flodden wall.

The Act of Union of 1707 and the suppression of the Jacobite insurgencies in ’15 and ’45 provided a settled political and social climate that allowed Edinburgh to contemplate expansion beyond the City walls. The constraints of the nor’ loch meant that the initial expansion of the City focused towards the south outside the Telfer and Flodden walls.

Very little remains of the period prior to 1700, but there are a number of former “country” houses dating from the early 1700’s that still exist embedded in the urban fabric of the South Side. Hermits and Termits at 64 St Leonard’s Street dating from 1734 has provided a home for two generations of artists, a railway office for an adjacent coal yard and is now fully restored as a residence. Chapel House (1750) and Pear Tree House (1747) the former now used by the Mosque and the latter being a pub and restaurant. Sciennes Hill House (built in phases from 1741) where Walter Scott as a boy met Robert Burns, is now part of a tenement. 1759 As a result of the peace and prosperity being experienced at this time several small scattered developments were under taken as an extension to the Old Town and located within the boundaries of the town walls. These were Adam, Argyll, and Brown Squares (circa 1740s). Although there was no overall planning philosophy these schemes were considered as planned developments at the time. The landowners in the South Side, particularly from Causewayside northwards, were numerous and feuing their policies in an unrelated George Square fashion.

George Square laid out in 1766, was the most ambitious scheme of unified architecture attempted in Edinburgh at that time. However, this scheme was overtaken by the large scale masterplanning exercise by James Craig for the First New Town, which began work in 1767.

 South Side C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a c t e r A p p r a i s a l

One of the principal spurs to expansion came about with the construction of North Bridge in 1772 followed by the construction of South Bridge in 1788 which linked the New Town, Old Town and South Side directly for the first time. The demolition of Lady Nicolson’s House in 1794 allowed Nicolson Street to be extended to Clerk Street and by 1800 building had reached St Patrick Square and Montague and Rankeillor Streets had been laid out.

Up to 1800 the housing that was built was of vernacular style rubble rather than ashlar, although there were some notable exceptions. By 1830 terraces and villas were being erected as far south as West Mayfield. The housing market was saturated by this time and this allied to a declaration of bankruptcy by the City in 1833 resulted in no new building being erected in the South Side for twenty years. 1852

The final expansion of new building in the South Side took place from the 1850s onwards with Hope Park Terrace, Lutton Place and Bernard Terrace all being completed by the 1870s. From the end of the century until the mid 1920s little new building activity occurred. However, in the northern and central sections of the conservation area existing tenements were subdivided twice and sometimes three times without regard to amenity.

A scheme for rehousing the population living in the area between the Pleasance and Richmond Place was prepared by the City Architect’s Department with new building commencing in 1931 which was completed in 1938. There were other, smaller, redevelopments in East Crosscauseway, Buccleuch Street, Simon Square, Gifford Park and St Patrick Square were also carried out at the same time all adding up to a considerable amount of housing redevelopment.

City Architect’s Department rehousing

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In the late 1920s, the Odeon Cinema and Empire Theatre were constructed, the latter now known as the Festival Theatre having been refurbished in the 1990s. In the 1920s the Corporation commissioned Sir Frank Mears to prepare a plan for Central Edinburgh. His proposals of 1931 were shelved with the outbreak of war in 1939. The Empire Theatre In the thirty years following the Second World War, there was considerable Planning activity in the South Side. The first major plan relating to the South Side was the Abercromby Civic Survey and Plan of 1949. The proposals included a major road development through the area and redevelopment around George Square to cater for the expansion of the University. The survey also concluded that the majority of housing suffered from multiple deficiencies and should be redeveloped. In 1962 the Corporation agreed to process the University/Nicolson Street Comprehensive Development Area (CDA) and approved the proposed CDA in 1968.

Edinburgh University, operating on the basis of these plans, redeveloped most of George Square during the 1960s, leaving only the west side of the square intact. In this redevelopment two tower blocks were built which now dominate the skyline.

In 1966, the Quinquennial Review of the 1957 Development Plan recommended the South Side as an action area for comprehensive development. In 1968, The Secretary of State instructed that the proposed Action Area be deleted from the statutory map and that the 1957 zonings be restored. The review was not formally approved until 1974. The considerable delay added to the uncertainty over the future of the South Side.

In 1973, it was decided that renewal work in the South Side should proceed on the basis of a Local Plan rather than a CDA plan. In 1975, the South Side was declared an Outstanding Conservation Area with conservation and rehabilitation being the key factors in the Local Plan.

10 South Side C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a c t e r A p p r a i s a l

This change in Planning policy, allied to the availability of private sector grants and the promotion of Housing Association activity, produced a burst of residential rehabilitation activity throughout the South Side. This started in the mid 1970s and continued through the 80s and had the effect of restoring confidence in the South Side. The single biggest scheme was the partial restoration and rebuilding of a full street block on Nicolson Street between East Crosscauseway and West Richmond Street, which included ground floor shops and a supermarket. Edinvar Housing Association also made significant inroads into refurbishing blocks on Buccleuch Street, Drummond Street and Drummond Place.

During the same period, the City Council and Housing Associations began extensive new build housing schemes along the Pleasance and St Leonard’s Street where clearance had taken place for the now deleted Bridges Relief Road.

The University created a new square in front of McEwan Hall, while the Royal College of Surgeons refurbished Hill Square. The former Newington and St Leonard’s Church was refurbished as a concert hall (Queens Hall) in the mid 70s and the City Council refurbished the former Empire Theatre in the 1990s (Festival Theatre).

Hill Square

Festival Theatre By the late 1980s and 90s private housing developers started to erect new housing developments on the remaining gap sites, significantly reducing them in number.

11 South Side C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a c t e r A p p r a i s a l

Analysis And Essential Character

The South Side conservation area is a large diverse area with a rich mixture of historical periods and stages of development. However, there are certain features which relate to the conservation area as a whole and these are dealt with under this heading. Later, for the purposes of analysing Spatial Structure and Townscape, the conservation area has been divided into four sub areas.

Site Context and Views

The South Side Conservation Area lies on a gentle south facing slope falling towards Gilmerton and Dalkeith. It is bounded by the line of the former town walls to the north and constrained by the major open spaces of the Meadows to the west and Holyrood Park to the east. The buildings of the South Side are built upon a strip of land between these features. The southern boundary abuts the Blacket Conservation Area. view south over West Crosscauseway and beyond The topography of the area means that there are some fine views northwards towards the Castle and the Old Town and eastwards towards Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags. This makes the roofline of the conservation area particularly sensitive to change. Generally the area is characterised by the slender towers of churches and the cupolas and domes of institutional buildings. However, there are some modern blocks from the 1960s, around George Square, that break the skyline.

view over Nicolson Square

view east

12 South Side C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a c t e r A p p r a i s a l

The mixed residential, commercial buildings of the South Side consist mostly of 4-6 storeys constructed of stone with pitched, slated roofs. A characteristic of the South Side is the use of wallhead gables in the early Georgian vernacular tenements. The uniformity of building heights provides a background against which important features of the City stand out. Lying between the Castle/Old Town Ridge and Arthur’s Seat/Salisbury Crags the area fulfils a valuable role by not upstaging them in the overall composition of the City. Victorian tenements It is important that where there are development opportunities lying adjacent to the conservation area boundary that views out of the conservation area are not disrupted and that the style of building reflects the scale, massing and materials of the conservation area. This is particularly true along the eastern edge of the conservation area along St Leonard’s and the northern area of the conservation area where it overlaps with the modern development on edge of boundary World Heritage Site boundary.

• The central position and historic nature of the South Side make the area extremely sensitive to the effects of high buildings and the overall height of the area should not be broken.

• The proximity of Arthur’s Seat, Salisbury Crags and the Old Town Ridge allow dramatic views and glimpses from a large number of points throughout the conservation area and the World Heritage Site. These views should be retained.

• The city skyline of the South Side and its landmarks are particularly distinctive and contribute to the prominence of the World Heritage Site whose boundary overlaps the South Side to the north.

13 South Side C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a c t e r A p p r a i s a l

Focal Points and Landmarks

There are a considerable number of prominent buildings that act as focal points throughout the area. These are principally churches and institutional buildings. They tend to occur along two routes, namely Nicolson/Clerk Street and Buccleuch Street/Causewayside.

Beginning with Nicolson Street, at the northern boundary of the conservation area, the most prominent building at this point is the Old College on South Bridge initially designed and started by Robert Adam in 1789. Completed by W H Playfair in 1838 and its distinctive dome being added by Rowan Anderson in 1886. Although the building lies just outside the conservation area boundary its presence on Nicolson Street is particularly noticeable. Looking northwards, the skyline is dominated by the Tron Kirk and the street is terminated by the dome McEwan of General Register House on Princes Street. Hall From Nicolson Square the dome of McEwan Hall is glimpsed along with the minaret of the mosque on Potterrow and the spire of Buccleuch and Greyfriars church. The views along West Richmond Street are dominated by the University Tower Blocks of Hume and Appleton Towers.

To the south of St Patrick Square the skyline is punctuated by the spires of the Queen’s Hall on Clerk Street, St Peters church on Lutton Place and St Margaret and St Leonard’s church on Dalkeith Road.

• With the exception of the two modern towers on George Square the area is punctuated by spires, domes and a minaret reinforcing the character of the area.

St Margaret and St Leonard’s

St Peters

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Routes

Three traffic routes penetrate the area. The principal route, comprising South Clerk Street/Clerk Street and Nicolson Street, runs through the centre of the area having been constructed in Georgian times to make use of North and South Bridge to link directly to the City Centre and the New Town. This street acts as a linear “High Street”, particular from South Clerk Street into the city centre.

The other routes were originally the medieval routes to Edinburgh. The easterly route comprising Dalkeith Road/St Leonard’s Street and the Pleasance running down to the Cowgate. The second medieval route comprises Causewayside/ Buccleuch Street and Potter Row linking with Candlemaker Row and George IV Bridge. East and West Crosscauseway connected these routes, in medieval times.

Clerk St / S CLerk St

• South Clerk Street/Nicolson Street is the principal route through the area and acts as the main shopping street or “High Street” for the South Side.

15 South Side C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a c t e r A p p r a i s a l

view west over George Square to Bruntsfield Natural Heritage

There are two major areas of open space to the east and west respectively of the conservation area as well as a number of smaller open spaces and squares within the built up area. Some of these have been designed as an integral part of the urban fabric. On the west side of the conservation area is the Meadows, a major parkland area of open space serving a large part of the population of south Edinburgh. It is a managed open space with recreational facilities including cycleways, tree-lined paths, children’s’ play areas, cricket squares, tennis courts, pitch and put and bowling greens. For the most part it is characterised by large expanses of mown grass, avenues of mature broad-leaved trees with secondary lines of ornamental flowering cherries. The Marchmont tenemental area is visible through the trees on its south side, with Bruntsfield to the west.

from the Meadows to west boundary of Conservation Area

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Arthur’s Seat To the east of the built up area lies the more open and expansive natural heritage landscape of Holyrood Park with Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags being prominent features. The urban edge, which generally coincides with the edge of the conservation area, abruptly meets the rougher terrain; tree planted edge and natural vegetation of the steep slopes forming the boundary of the Royal Park.

Scattered throughout the conservation area there are a number of formal and informal open spaces and squares. A large number have the potential to be improved. This is particularly true in the northern part of the conservation area. Although many are small they make a contribution to residential amenity which is disproportionate to their size. Generally each space is visually linked with at least one other providing significant legibility and an enhanced perception of the amount of open space.

Preston Street Burial Ground Nicolson Square Natural Heritage Designations

There are no designations within the boundaries of the conservation area; however, there are several just outside which have an impact on it.

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Holyrood Park Site of Special Scientific Interest

Holyrood Park (Arthur’s Seat Volcano) is an SSSI, identified by Scottish Natural Heritage “as requiring special protection because of its flora, fauna or geological or physiological features.” It has important geological features and complex geology plus a richness of natural plant communities, this area of unimproved grassland is one of the largest and most diverse habitats in the City. There are also significant freshwater aquatic plant communities. Designation is under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981

Green Belt

Holyrood Park is designated as Green Belt, indicating that its rural character and amenities are to be protected.

Neighbourhood Nature Area

“Briery Baulks” on Brown Street was designated as a NNA in 1998. This designation stems from the Nature Conservation Strategy to encourage local residents to take responsibility for enhancing an area of local greenspace by undertaking management to benefit both wildlife and access to wildlife. Briery Baulks

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Trees

Significant trees of stature exist mainly in the Meadows, Hill Square, East Preston Street Burial Ground and the grounds of St Peter’s Church. Other open spaces have mature but small species trees; and while these have a limited attraction in the immediate vicinity, they do not contribute a great deal to the overall sustainable landscape structure of the conservation area. The trees in Holyrood Park have not reached maturity but are a valuable future resource. There is limited street tree planting in streets except for Lutton Place which is sufficiently wide to accommodate tree planting along pavements on each side and along some parts of the Pleasance where street trees have been planted as part of new developments. There are no Tree Preservation Orders within the Conservation Area.

Hill Square

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Expansion Areas

The conservation area covers a large area which includes various historical periods and stages of development to form a variety of character areas and spatial patterns. For this appraisal the conservation area is split into four sub areas representing distinctive patterns of growth and development.

Expansion Areas & Spatial Structure

First expansion area

Second expansion area (George Sq.)

Third expansion area

Fourth expansion area

block structure

formal open space

informal open space

successful integration

development opportunities

activity

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• The small open spaces and squares scattered throughout the area generally link together visually and have significance beyond their size.

Townscape

landmarks

important distant views

important enclosed spaces

principal routes

intrusive landmarks

pre 1750s buildings

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First Expansion Area

Spatial Structure

The first area lies to the north of East and West Crosscauseway bounded by Potterow up to South College Street where the boundary follows the old town walls and meets up with the Pleasance. The University Physical Education block is included at this point. The boundary then continues down the Pleasance, deviating to include the Deaconess Hospital, linking with East Crosscauseway.

This area is characterised by informal broken blocks making them very permeable and vernacular in character. Some of the blocks have been infilled with larger buildings such as the Festival Theatre, the former Co-op, and Tesco’s on Nicolson Street. Similarly the block containing Surgeons Hall has been infilled with University buildings. Surgeons Hall Gifford Park Over time, significant redevelopment has taken place, varying from the City Architect’s schemes of the 1930s to address overcrowding including a full street block at Richmond Place/ Pleasance and smaller schemes at East Crosscauseway and Gifford Park. The decline that the area suffered from the end of the second World War up to the mid 1970s produced further redevelopment in the 1980s and 1990s as well as a considerable amount of rehabilitation.

New residential development has occurred on Drummond Street/ The Pleasance, other pockets of redevelopment have occurred on West Richmond Street, Davie Street and Chapel Street. The biggest combined redevelopment/ rehabilitation scheme was that on the east side of Nicolson Street, between West Richmond Street and East Crosscauseway. All of these schemes have followed the grain and height of existing block sizes.

The roads lying between Nicolson Street and the Pleasance tend to remain as setted roads. Drummond Street, which is closed at the Pleasance, has a utilitarian barrier located east of Richmond Street, which mars the geometry of the road layout.

22 South Side C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a c t e r A p p r a i s a l

Nicolson Square With the expansion of the City into the South Side a number of small planned Georgian schemes were developed. Nicolson Square is the earliest, having a grassed area in the centre, with vernacular Georgian tenements on the north side with projecting shop fronts. The south side of the square is marred by the presence of a gap site on the corner of the square and Nicolson Street created by a fire in the early 1990s.

A second “planned” scheme occurs at Hill Square and Hill Place with the concrete corner of the Lister Institute intruding into the square and the former St Michael’s Episcopal Church, now converted to a lecture Hall. The square was the subject of a regeneration scheme promoted by the Royal College of Surgeons.

Informal public spaces occur behind Nicolson Square to the north adjacent to the Festival theatre. The Local Authority housing block on Richmond Street internally contains a children’s play area and garden ground. The small area to the front of this block on the Pleasance has been paved over and now contains wheelie bins.

The meeting of roads at West Crosscauseway and Buccleuch Street is filled with a pedestrian island and could provide a more formal planned open space. Hill Square • Planned Georgian formal development overlays the medieval street pattern.

• Small informal street blocks with a high degree of permeability characterise the area creating theatrical elements.

• Formal and informal open spaces and squares West Crosscauseway / create variety and interest and help to break up Buccleuch Street the hard urban feeling of the area.

• Many of the side streets retain their setts.

23 South Side C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a c t e r A p p r a i s a l

Nicolson Street Townscape

The main route through the area is Nicolson Street with side roads on either side linking through to Potterow and the Pleasance and creating an informal grid structure.

The main east - west routes are West Richmond Street and the Crosscauseways. Between Nicolson Street and the Pleasance there are a number of streets running from north to south creating smaller blocks and reflecting the fact that there were a large number of individual landowners when the ground was originally feued. Consequently block sizes and plot sizes tend to be smaller than elsewhere in the conservation area giving a lively variety of building types and frontages.

Building lines are generally to the heel of the pavement, the exceptions being Georgian residential streets and squares, such as Drummond Street and Hill Square. New residential developments on the Pleasance tend to have small gardens to the front to gain privacy. Where new development has occurred on Nicolson Street from East and Potterrow this has been mixed residential and shopping which to West has followed the building line. Crosscauseway Generally heights of buildings vary through the area being between three and six storeys all buildings built before the second world war are of stone construction. New post war development respects the heights and overall massing of the area.

Nicolson Street is the main linear shopping street running through the area supplemented by a wide range of restaurants and cafes on Chapel Street and Potterrow. The streets linking these two also contain a wide range of shops, particularly West Nicolson Street and Nicolson Square. Other shops occur on Potterrow the returns of the streets linking Nicolson Street with the Pleasance.

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In terms of new development opportunities there are two sites.

• The south east corner of Nicolson Square and Nicolson Street. This is a gap site created by a fire approximately ten years ago. The site is currently in multiple ownership and surrounded by unsightly hoardings.

• The strip of ground running along the east side of Potterrow behind the Festival Theatre is cleared and the site presents a long row of hoardings to the street.

• Two gap sites surrounded by hoardings detract from their surroundings and provide development opportunities that could significantly enhance the area

• New developments reflect the massing and scale of the area and use render and blockwork to keep in character. On the main shopping streets mixed uses have been included. mixed uses on main streets • Smaller block and plot sizes provide a lively variety of building types and frontages.

25 South Side C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a c t e r A p p r a i s a l

Architectural Character

This area is characterised by a rich, diverse grouping of architectural styles and buildings using primarily stone and pitched, slated roofs. The area is generally harmonious in scale. It is proposed to treat architectural character broadly under the following architectural styles.

Traditional Dating from the 1730s onwards these buildings were vernacular in style and formed a complete and continuous façade, presenting wallhead gables to the front and newel or turret staircases to the rear. Generally these buildings are of rubble construction, harled or rendered. Examples of this style are found on West Nicolson Street and Nicolson Street.

Two former mansion houses are found in this area each of which have strong historic associations. Peartree House

• Chapel House, a category B listed building, is located behind the mosque on Chapel Street. This is a mid eighteenth century house which was once the home of Andrew Melrose, founder of the tea and coffee merchants. On his death the house became the Royal Maternity and Lying in Hospital where James Simpson first made use of chloroform.

• Peartree House, also category B listed and located on West Nicolson Street near to Chapel House. This house is of the same period and was owned by Adam Fergusson. The house has seen many famous people pass through its doors including James Boswell and Robert Burns. It is reputed that while the house was in the ownership of the brewer Andrew Usher whiskey was first commercially blended here.

Georgian Georgian classical developments made their appearance within the vernacular context of the South Side. This period dates from the 1760s when “planned” developments began to be advanced in the South Side. There is a dignified quality to the architecture of this period complemented by detailed finishes, floorscape and railings. These buildings tend to be five to six storeys in height and finished in ashlar stonework to the front. The transition between vernacular and classical Georgian architecture is evidenced on the north side of West Nicolson Street.

26 South Side C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a c t e r A p p r a i s a l

Housing developments at Drummond Street, Roxburgh Street and South College Street follow the stricter principles of classical architecture and are generally six storeys in height.

Modern Small inter war housing developments at Richmond Place, Gifford Park and elsewhere, comprising infill and redevelopment were successfully integrated into the fabric of the area by using traditional materials such as stone and slate. These buildings reflect the scale of the area. inter war housing at Gifford Park Post war developments include the School of Mining in Roxburgh Place, which is out of scale and character with its surroundings. Some more recent mixed use and residential developments while keeping in scale have used brick as a finishing material which looks out of place. This is particularly true along the Pleasance. Elsewhere block and render have been used which is more in keeping with Scottish tradition. While the scale and massing of these schemes is appropriate, the way some of them address the street with a single entrance to all flats misses the opportunity of providing entrances to ground floor flats, thus increasing vitality to the street frontage.

• Despite the variety of architectural styles and periods which are evidenced this area remains generally harmonious in scale, massing and materials.

• The use of brickwork is not in keeping and should be avoided.

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Second Expansion Area - George Square (Town and Gown)

Spatial Structure

Buccleuch Street, Chapel Street and Potterrow turning onto Lothian Street and Teviot Row along its northern edge form the boundary to this area. The boundary then follows Middle Meadow walk linking with the northern edge of the Meadows view north to connect back to Buccleuch Street. from Meadows

This area is dominated by the University, which first moved into George Square in 1914. The principal through route is Buccleuch Street/Potterrow forming the eastern boundary, the routes to the west off this principal route lead directly into the campus and provide no through routes for vehicles. However, the area is extremely permeable for pedestrians.

Bristo Square, which was built in 1983, provides an appropriate setting to the McEwan Hall, but with an absence of development to the east, due to the large car park on Crichton Street, the overall effectiveness is lost. In developing the square Potterrow has been ramped through a tight curve to marry with Lothian Street along the northern boundary. This has resulted in the creation of a pedestrian underpass linking the University area to South College Street that disrupts the original street pattern. McEwan Hall & students union

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George Square In the 1960s the University embarked on a major redevelopment programme around George Square, which is the largest planned open space in the South Side. This involved the redevelopment of the south side of the square and half of the north and east sides. This inward looking Georgian square of small scale residential character has been opened up by modern large scale institutional buildings which contrast in scale and style leaving the Georgian remnants isolated. The tower blocks at mews the south east and north east corners detract from buildings the skyline of the conservation area. behind George Square The Georgian tenements of Buccleuch Street and their mews buildings behind occupy the area to the south of George Square. These in turn lead into small informal squares.

• While there is no vehicular permeability through this area it is very permeable for pedestrians.

• A 1960’s international style of development has been overlaid on the planned residential formality of George Square.

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McEwan Hall Townscape

The McEwan Hall and Medical School are distinctive landmarks to the north of George square. However, the internal courtyard to the medical school accommodates cars rather than pedestrians.

George Square itself has suffered considerable disruption to its original form with the major buildings erected by the University. The original plot sizes in George Square have been completely ignored and overlaid by twentieth century international style, tower and podium buildings faced in a variety of materials ranging from slate and stone to concrete and mosaic.

To the south of George Square the original building forms and types occur with the Georgian terraces on Buccleuch Place consisting of main door and common stair tenement blocks of four storeys, basement and attic. The setted street is one of the grandest in the South Side being 18m wide. The garden areas to the southern block are unfortunately given over largely to car parking. The lane to the rear is lined with vacant mews. Buccleuch Place Buccleuch Street The Buildings on Buccleuch Street generally follow a building line which lies to the heel of the pavement. The exception to this is the return Georgian tenement running north from Buccleuch Place. Otherwise the buildings are of varying heights between two and five storeys. Boroughloch Square

The charming Hope Park Square fronting onto the Meadows, and the triangular Boroughloch Square, which is completely dominated by parking, provide a visual urban edge to the Meadows.

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The largest development opportunity in the South Side occurs with the Crichton Street car park, which has been used for parking for thirty years.

• Crichton Street car park provides an opportunity to unify the spatial structure of this area by creating an innovative link building

• With the exception of the two university towers the overall height of the new buildings is in keeping

• Parking is squeezed into every available space and dominates squares and public buildings

• Despite the considerable modern redevelopment that has occurred in George Square, the scale of the gardens, mature landscaping, original railings and street finishes still give the square a coherence.

George Square

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Architectural Character

Despite the major redevelopments that have taken place in George Square there is still a wealth of architectural styles and buildings in this area, the majority using stone and pitched, slated roofs.

Traditional George Square Unusually the traditional, vernacular buildings occur to the south in this area, reflecting the fact that Buccleuch Street was one of the main mediaeval routes into the city. Consequently the buildings forming the Buccleuch Street side of Boroughloch Square evidence wallhead gables to the street and stair turrets to the rear. A new build block in this frontage adopts the same style although the windows are modern.

Georgian Classical Georgian buildings, originally residential, occur on George Square, Buccleuch Place and Buccleuch Street, which were all laid out by James Brown in the 1760s and 70s. These buildings retain their original railings, details and setted streets.

• Archers’ Hall built in 1776 and extended in 1900 sits in a tarmac forecourt set back from Buccleuch Street.

• Hope Park Square a charming Georgian Square containing a delightful Dutch gabled building of 1725.

Archer’s Hall

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Victorian McEwan Hall Buildings from this era tend to occur in the north of this area and are institutional in nature they consist of:

• McEwan Hall and the University Medical School a large Venetian Cinquecento complex designed by Rowand Anderson and built in two stages. The medical school frontage to Teviot Place is long and regular, inside this building there is an impressive courtyard. McEwan Hall is described in the Buildings of Edinburgh as “a magnificent petrified blancmange”.

• Student’s Union on Teviot Place is built in an early 16th former George century Scots style. Watson’s Ladies • The former George Watson’s Ladies’ College now the College Psychology Department on the north side of George Square, a category listed building, built in the French Renaissance manner in 1876.

• Reid School of music on Teviot Row is an unfussy Italianate building of 1858.

Modern The half redeveloped George Square campus constitutes the largest concentration of 1960s buildings in the conservation area and represents major buildings produced by the offices of Basil Spence and Robert Mathews.

• With the exception of the two tower blocks and the massing of the remaining redevelopments on George Square the area is generally harmonious in scale, massing and materials.

• There are significant key institutional buildings contained tower block at in this area. George Square

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Third Expansion Area from West to East Spatial Structure Crosscauseway East/West Crosscauseway crossing the Pleasance and including Beaumont Place to the north forms the boundaries to this area. The Boundary then moves south on St Leonard’s Hill before moving east to include the former James Clark School. St Leonard’s Bank is included and the boundary then runs along the back of St Leonard’s Bank, excluding the new residential developments on the former goods yard, and returns to the Pleasance taking in Hermits and Termits house. The boundary then takes in Parkside Street before moving west to return to the Pleasance. Bernard Terrace and Hope Park Terrace form the Southern boundary before meeting the eastern boundary formed by Hope Park Crescent and Buccleuch Street.

Although some irregularity is evidenced in the street blocks in the north of this area, between St Leonard’s Street and Buccleuch Street, the blocks generally become more regular particularly towards the Clerk Street south. As a consequence there is a greater degree of formality about the blocks, which are lined with tenements. This reduces the permeability of the area. Infilling occurs with the Odeon and the Queens Hall on Clerk Street. Pockets of residential redevelopment on former gap sites have taken place on all streets.

There are no connecting streets between Clerk Street and Buccleuch Street apart from the boundary streets of West Crosscauseway and St Leonard’s Street Hope Park Terrace. However there is a cul de sac off Gifford Park and a new pend entry at Buccleuch Pend, which give a high degree of pedestrian permeability, while creating small block sizes behind the main facade of Clerk Street.

On the east side of St Leonard’s Street new development has occurred with a brick built residential block sitting next to a new police station. New flats have also been built on St Leonard’s Hill and Lane. These developments have followed the grain and height of existing blocks. Further east, the single sided, St Leonard’s Bank has a spectacular view over Queens Drive to Salisbury Crags and Arthur’s Seat.

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St Patrick Square Public open space is at a premium within the urban fabric of this area, occurring at the Georgian planned St Patrick Square and the more informal Victorian corner square on St Leonard’s Street/Bernard Terrace. However, the formal planned parkland of the Meadows forms the western side of Hope Park Crescent, while the wilderness of Holyrood Park defines the eastern edge of this area.

• More formal block pattern reduces permeability and gives a more urban feeling to the area. This feeling is increased by the lack of open spaces within the area.

St Leonard’s Street / Bernard Terrace

Townscape

This area combines the busy shopping thoroughfare of Clerk Street with the openness of St Patrick Square relieving the general line of four storey classical facades. There are four streets connecting Clerk Street with St Leonard’s to the east all being residential in character. Cowan’s Close that runs off East Crosscauseway forms a cul de sac entry into the middle of the block giving access to new brick built flats. Montague Street Building lines on the three main north south routes are virtually all to the heel of the pavement, while the east to west routes have small front gardens. Low stone walls with a multiplicity of fencing materials define these garden areas. With the exception of St Patrick Square and West Crosscauseway none of the streets are setted.

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The area is dominated to the east by constant views down streets of Salisbury Crags and Arthur’s seat. The spires of the Queens Hall, St Peter’s and Buccleuch and Greyfriars churches are prominent landmarks punctuating the roofscape. The large open space of the Meadows is encountered as a surprise when exiting this dense urban area via Buccleuch Street and Hope Park Terrace.

As with the other areas there is a variety in building heights between three and six storeys, however, the average height tends towards four storeys. Buildings erected before the second world war are of stone and natural slate finished pitched roofs. Post war buildings in this area are a mixture of brick and harled construction, which St Peter’s on Lutton Place respect the general massing and heights. Clerk Street Clerk Street is the major linear shopping street with ground floor shopping being interrupted only at St Patrick Square. The activity of shops, offices, cafes, cinema and concert hall, combined with being the major transport link into the City Centre, give a strong liveliness to the street scene. Buccleuch Street is also a busy, more local street with a strong cafÈ element, which stops at Gifford Park. St Leonard’s Street has a number of local shops along its west side. The shop fronts need improvement.

• Salisbury Crags and Arthur’s Seat dominate views to the east and should be protected.

• New developments reflect the massing and scale of the area and use render and blockwork to keep in character. On the main shopping streets mixed uses have been included.

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Architectural Character

The variety and diversity of architectural styles and buildings continues to be reflected in this area. The use of stone, harling and slated roofs was universal up to the 1970s when brick developments began to be introduced.

Traditional A smattering of vernacular buildings occur along East and West Crosscauseway and on the returns down Buccleuch Street and St Patrick Street. These tend to be five storeys in height with typical wallhead gables and rear turret stair towers. Buccleuch Pend completed in 2001, adopts the same style. Hermits and Termits, a former “country house” at 64 St Leonard’s Street is probably the oldest house in the area dating Hermits and Termits from 1734. Buccleuch Pend off St Georgian Patrick Square The majority of this area is from the Georgian era beginning with St Patrick Square which was begun in 1800 to a unified scheme. Clerk Street begun in 1810 continues the line of Nicolson Street. These droved, ashlar fronted tenements continue into Montague and Rankeillor Streets. Development in the latter street was halted in the 1830’s and picked up again in the 1860s. The three windowed Georgian bow corner of Parkside and St Leonard’s Street provides a point of articulation to the bend of St Leonard’s Street.

The most prominent building of this period is the former church on Clerk Street now occupied by the Queen’s Hall and built in 1823 by Robert Brown.

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Victorian As indicated above the main period for building began in the 1860s with a burst of streets including Bernard Terrace, Hope Park Terrace and the completion of Rankeillor Street. While some blocks continue the flat faced tenemental style of the Georgian Period others see the introduction of bay windows to the street frontage. Bernard Terrace Modern Between the wars some redevelopment occurred with the City Architect providing new housing on East Crosscauseway, St Patrick’s Square and Gifford Park. The insertion of a white tiled art deco cinema occurred on Clerk Street in 1930.

From the 1970s numerous infill residential schemes have been completed, particularly in the St Leonard’s area. These schemes are a mixture of brickwork, blockwork and render with the blockwork and render developments being most in keeping visually The best scheme is one produced on St Leonard’s by SSHA. This forms a full street block being three and four storeys in height with an attractive, internal, amenity courtyard development and sensitively designed car parking and garden space. The streets are addressed well and there is a high degree of permeability through the block. Buccleuch Pend The recent recreation of Buccleuch Pend, copying the original vernacular Georgian style with a wallhead gable to the front and a turnpike stair to the rear, and the modern infill residential scheme on Buccleuch Street behind the Odeon cinema, illustrate two approaches to infill that have worked in the use of materials, scale and design.

• Despite the variety of architectural styles and periods which are evidenced this area remains generally harmonious in scale, massing and materials.

• The use of brickwork is not in keeping and should be avoided.

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Fourth Expansion Area

Spatial Structure

Hope Park Terrace and Bernard Terrace form the boundaries to this area to the north linked to Summerhall and Sciennes on the west. The boundary then moves to the east along the back of the properties on Sciennes House Place before linking with Causewayside and moving south to meet Salisbury Place and Salisbury Road. The northern corners of Salisbury Road at each end are included, but the boundary runs along the rear of the properties in the centre section. The eastern boundary returns northwards up Dalkeith Road taking in Parkside Street and St Margaret’s and St Leonard’s Church before re-engaging with Bernard Terrace. Newington Road Larger block sizes are found in this area producing a lack of permeability and reflecting the larger feuing pattern found as a consequence of being further to the south of the old City Walls. This gives a degree of uniformity and solidity to some of the blocks. This uniformity is broken on the east side of Newington Road with Georgian tenements set back from the pavement and having shops occupying what were the front gardens to these properties. On the opposite side of the street there is a terrace of individual housing where the front gardens have been given over to car parking. Causewayside differs also in evidencing a mix of styles of buildings.

Dalkeith Road / Bernard Terrace In terms of redevelopment the City Architect’s work of the 1930s occurs on the corner of Dalkeith Road and Bernard Terrace. The other redevelopments that have taken place are mainly residential infill developments on East Newington Place, Sciennes and Causewayside where the opportunity for creating pedestrian routes linking streets has been lost.

A new office block has been built on Bernard Terrace with new single storey workshops and a yard occupying the centre of the block behind. There are no further development opportunities in the area.

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There is no formal open space contained within the area, although the meadows touches the north west boundary. Preston Street Burial Ground provides a green area off Dalkeith Road.

• More formal block pattern reduces permeability and gives a more urban feeling to the area. This feeling is increased Preston Street by the lack of open spaces within the area. Burial Ground

Townscape

The principal route through the area to the north is South Clerk Street and Newington Road. This is crossed by East and West Preston Street linking Causewayside with Dalkeith Road (the other principal north/south routes). T h e effect of this is to create four large blocks, which are only subdivided in the south west and north east blocks. Blackwood Crescent and Oxford Street subdivide these blocks, which are quiet tenemental streets. Even quieter cul de sac streets occur at Summerhall Place, South Oxford Street and East Newington Place.

Building lines to the heel of the pavement occur on South Clerk Street and Causewayside. Elsewhere there are generally small front gardens to the front of tenements and new flatted developments, giving a degree of privacy. A significant departure from the building line occurs on Newington Road. The east side has a Georgian terrace set back from the building line, which would have had long front gardens originally. With the exception of one plot these are all now occupied with single storey shops. Similarly on the west side of Newington Road, between West Preston Street and West Newington Place there is a terrace of three storey houses set back from the building line whose front gardens are completely given over to parking. original front garden on Newington Road Building heights vary across the area from two and half to five storeys, with the average height being four stories. As with the rest of the South Side all buildings erected up to the second world war are of stone construction with pitched slated roofs. More recent buildings from the 1980s onwards tend to use a blockwork and, or harling finish. The incidence of brick buildings is not so great in this area as in the rest of the conservation area. However, the triangular block formed by Sciennes and Causewayside has been fully redeveloped with flatted schemes using brick finishes. 40 South Side C o n s e r v a t i o n A r e a C h a r a c t e r A p p r a i s a l

One building that detracts from the area is the 1960s, eight storey ribbed tower belonging to the Royal (Dick) Vet College on the corner of Hope Park Terrace and Summerhall. This building breaks through the general height of the South Side and forms an inappropriate punctuation at the east end of the meadows. Royal (Dick) Vet College The main shopping street is South Clerk Street and Newington Road, with a break in shopping occurring on the west side of Newington Road where a terraced range of small hotels and B&Bs occurs. It is worth noting that shopping on Newington Road stops on the southern boundary of the conservation area where Minto Street begins. Other more specialised shopping occurs on Causewayside. Institutional uses occur with the Royal Dick Vet Hospital on Summerhall, Historic Scotland occupying the former Longmore Hospital, and The Royal Commission for Ancient and Historic Monuments Scotland occupying a new office block on Bernard Terrace.

• The multi storey block of the Royal Dick Vet College is a disrupting element to the skyline

Architectural Character

There is a continuing variety and diversity of architectural styles throughout this area although the emphasis moves more into Victorian buildings with the Georgian period being evidenced more in the south where the boundaries of the South Side and Blacket Conservation Areas meet.

Traditional There is one vernacular building of the late 1700s with two wallhead gables occurring at 21 - 25 Causewayside.

21-25 Causewayside

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Newington Road Georgian Significant parts of this area stem from the Georgian era beginning on Newington Road which was started in 1805 and continued over the next 20 years. The terrace properties vary in height from two and half to three and a half storeys. Victorian and twentieth century shops have overlaid these properties. East Newington Place is an incomplete terrace started in 1835. West Preston Street, which was started in 1824, was not completed until 1851. Lord Russell Place The triangular block with a bow front on the corner of Sciennes and Lord Russell Place provides a prominent point of articulation.

Victorian This period saw the linking of the Georgian developments of Montague Street and Nicolson Street with Victorian infilling between. In the early part of this period restraint was exercised in terms of continuing development in the Georgian manner. This is particularly true on Lutton Place and extending into Oxford Street. Similarly with the extension of Preston Street round into Summerhall Place. As the Victorian period progressed mansard roofs and bay windows began to appear. Later buildings introduced gablets and spired towers, some of which are particularly exuberant. This is especially true of the tenemental block on Parkside Terrace Dalkeith Road / Salisbury and that on the corner of Dalkeith Road and Salisbury Road. Road Two churches are particularly significant with prominent spires that can be seen throughout the conservation area. These are St Peter’s on Lutton Place and St Margaret’s and St Leonard’s on Dalkeith Road. Other prominent buildings are the former Longmore Hospital of classical design erected between 1878 and 1880; and the Hope Park and Buccleuch Congregational Church former Longmore on Hope Park Terrace an Italianate building of Hospital 1876. St Margaret’s and St Leonard’s

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Basil Spence designed Garage Modern Twentieth century buildings include a 1937 international style garage, now an off licence, designed by Basil Spence. In 1972 the same firm designed the head office for the Scottish Widows Fund and Life Assurance lying just outwith the conservation area boundary on Dalkeith Road. The Royal Commonwealth Pool designed by the firm of Robert Matthew, Johnson Marshall and built for the Commonwealth games of 1970 complements this building. Again this building lies on Dalkeith Road just outside the conservation area boundary.

workshops at Lutton Place More recent developments include residential infill schemes on Causewayside and Sciennes; Blackwood Crescent; East Newington Place and West Preston Street. A small terraced scheme of four single storey workshops is located within the tenemental block on the north side of Lutton Place providing economic vitality to the area. Blackwood Crescent

• Modern residential schemes are generally harmonious in scale and massing however, the use of brickwork and the way some schemes address the street is inappropriate.

• This area evidences good design connections between the Georgian and Victorian eras.

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Opportunities For Enhancement

Summary of elements that enhance and detract from the special character of the conservation area.

It should be pointed out that the opportunities for enhancement listed below are presented as potential projects which may be carried out if funds become available.

Nicolson Square / Street gap Development Opportunity Sites

There are a small number of sites that present themselves as development opportunities. These need to be treated with great sensitivity in order to create a degree of cohesion and unity and to tie the surrounding areas together. Modern innovative buildings should be considered. The sites concerned are

• The south east corner of Nicolson Square and Nicolson Crichton Street. This is a gap site created by a fire approximately Street car park ten years ago. The site is currently in multiple ownership and surrounded by unsightly hoardings.

• The strip of ground running along the east side of Potterrow behind the Festival Theatre is cleared and the site presents a long row of hoardings to the street.

• Crichton Street car park provides the largest development East side of Potterrow site in the conservation area. This site provides a great opportunity to link George Square and Bristo Square with an innovative building that unifies the area.

• The north side of Bristo Square presents an opportunity to enclose and complete the square.

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Squares and Open Spaces

There are a number of formal and informal open spaces that would benefit from an improvement of the quality and nature of these spaces. West Crosscauseway and Buccleuch Street • Consideration could be given to creating a formal square at the junction of West Crosscauseway and Buccleuch Street.

• The small square at the front of the inter-war housing on the Pleasance is in very poor condition and would benefit from an enhancement scheme

• The small square at the Nelson Hall on Dalkeith Road is a south Nelson Hall facing corner site with paving in a poor condition and a small circular flower bed. This space could be redesigned as a pocket park with improved paving and seating.

• Boroughloch Square, which is in private ownership, is completely given over to car parking and could be subject to an enhancement scheme.

• Nicolson Square and St Patrick Square would benefit from Boroughloch Square enhancement, particular in the reinstatement of dwarf walls, railings and replacement trees of a larger scale to complement adjacent architecture and act as a foil to the main road. Greater public access could be provided to these squares, including Hill Square.

• Health Centre Site on West Richmond Street/Pleasance is an important strategic site located on an important route into the City Centre. It has small trees in poor condition with mesh fencing around the boundary. Improvements could include cast iron railings Hill Square and replacing trees around the perimeter with large species to complement the townscape.

Generally the quality of existing open spaces could be improved through further tree planting, giving greater access and boundary treatments.

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Street Enhancements

The fencing and railings on many streets are of differing types and poor materials namely weld mesh and chain link. The front garden walls are also in poor condition in lots of cases. Enhancement schemes on a street by street basis could be considered to give unity to boundary treatments.

Shop Front Improvements

There are a wide range of shop front styles ranging from good to poor. Consideration could be given to introducing a shop front improvement scheme in selected areas.

Wheelie Bins

The introduction of wheelie bins has made a major impact on resolving litter and associated environmental health problems. Efforts have been made to locate containers in a manner which minimises their visual impact. Such efforts must continue to ensure that townscape quality is respected. Within the World Heritage Site a strategy is being prepared for waste management.

Role of the Public

It is essential that property owners accept their maintenance responsibilities. The emphasis should be on the repair rather than replacement of original features, as these contribute to the conservation area’s character as a whole. Alterations or additions should be sympathetic to the original style and of an appropriate scale.

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General Information

Statutory Policies

All Local Authorities are directed by Scottish Office Development Department Circular No. 13/1998 to Historic Scotland’s Memorandum of Guidance on listed buildings and conservation areas, in their consideration of conservation and listed building consent matters.

The South Side Conservation Area lies wholly within the area covered by the Central Edinburgh Local Plan (adopted in May 1997). The Local Plan identifies a significant part of the conservation area as falling within a mixed activity zone with an emphasis on promoting an appropriate mix of activities, which contribute to local character and vitality. The remainder of the Local Plan area is covered by a Housing and Compatible uses zoning in which the existing residential character and amenities are to be safeguarded. Within the Conservation Area the existing architectural character, historic and landscape character is to be preserved and enhanced.

The linear shopping street of South Bridge, Nicolson Street, Clerk Street and South Clerk Street has designated Primary Frontages where a maximum of 20% non retail use is allowed; and Secondary Frontages where a maximum of 40% non retail use is allowed. This linear shopping street is also safeguarded as a route for a light rapid transit proposal.

Supplementary to the Central Edinburgh Local Plan is the World Heritage Site Conservation Manifesto. The objective of the Manifesto is to assist in preserving the historic fabric of the World Heritage Site and ensure that changes complement and enhance its special character.

Supplementary Guidelines

The Council also produces supplementary planning guidance on a range of development control issues. These are contained within the Development Quality Handbook.

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Implications Of Conservation Area Status

Designation as a conservation area has the following implications:

• Permitted development rights under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Scotland) Order 1992 are restricted. Planning permission is, therefore, required for stonecleaning, external painting, roof alterations and the formation of hard surfaces. The area of extensions to dwelling houses, which may be erected without consent, is also restricted to 16m2 and there are additional controls over satellite dishes.

• Under Article 4 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Scotland) Order 1992, the planning authority can seek approval of the Scottish Ministers for Directions that restrict permitted development rights. The Directions effectively control the proliferation of relatively minor alterations to buildings in conservation areas that can cumulatively lead to erosion of character and appearance. Development is not precluded, but such alterations will require planning permission and special attention will be paid to the potential effect of proposals. The South Side Conservation Area is currently covered by the full range of Article 4 Directions:

Class 1 enlargement, improvement or other alteration to a dwelling house

Class 3 provision or alteration of buildings or enclosures within the curtilage of a dwelling house

Class 6 installation, alteration or replacement of a satellite dish

Class 7 construction or alteration of gates, fences, walls or other means of enclosure

Class 30/33 local authority development

Class 38 water undertakings

Class 39 development by public gas suppliers

Class 41 development by tramway or road transport undertakings

Class 40 development by electricity statutory undertakers

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• Special attention must be paid to the character and appearance of the conservation area when planning controls are being exercised. Most applications for planning permission for alterations will, therefore, be advertised for public comment and any views expressed must be taken into account when making a decision on the application.

• Buildings, which are not statutorily listed, can normally be demolished without approval under the Planning Regulations. Within conservation areas the demolition of unlisted buildings requires conservation area consent.

• Alterations to windows are controlled in terms of the Council’s policy.

Trees within conservation areas covered by the Town and Country (Scotland) Act 1972, as amended by the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997. The Act applies to the uprooting, felling or lopping of a tree having a diameter exceeding 75mm at a point 1.5m above ground level, and concerns the lopping of trees as much as removal. The planning authority must be given six weeks notice of the intention to uproot, fell or lop trees. Failure to give notice renders the person liable to the same penalties as for contravention of a TPO.

Grants may be available towards the repair or restoration of historic buildings. The Council runs a conservation grant scheme. Such grants are normally dependent on comprehensive repair and restoration of original features and priority is given to tenemental housing and prominent buildings. Within the World Heritage Site grants are administered by the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust.

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References

Gifford J, McWilliam C, Walker D, Wilson C, The buildings of Scotland - Edinburgh (Penguin Books, 1984)

Historic Scotland, Memorandum of Guidance on listed buildings and conservation areas 1998.

Gray, John G, South Side Story (W.F.Knox & Co, 1962)

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51 This document is available on request in Braille, tape, large print various computer formats and community languages. Please contact ITS on 0131 242 8181 and quote ref. 02246/9. For additional English copies please contact the enquiry office on 0131 529 3900.

Andrew M Holmes Director of City Development The City of Edinburgh Council 1 Cockburn Street Edinburgh EH1 1ZJ

Produced by the City Development Department : Planning & Strategy

ISBN 1 85191 053 0