Planning News
HIDDEN DOOR Festival has just announced that the 2023 immersive event will take place at 15 Dalkeith Road. It is an amazing building inside and we looked into the history - and the current planning position.
Outline plans were submitted in May this year for a mixed use redevelopment of the former Scottish Widows site, followed by a public consultation on the £100 million development.
In late September final plans were submitted to the council for redevelopment of the site which would include partial demolition, the redevelopment of the office building and the addition of 194 houses in five blocks.
There will be 68 affordable homes included in that number, although Southside Community Council noted that this was all to be contained in one block which they take objection to, and they have noted that most flats are smaller and not suitable for families. Their biggest concern is that the planned development is shown as seven storeys high. The community council says that given that the building line will be nearer to the road, the blocks will
be more intrusive to those living opposite who will lose a lot of daylight to their homes.
The last date for comments has passed and planning permission is due to be determined by 21 January 2023.
The history of the Scottish Widows site is interesting. The site extends to 2.5 hectares and was previously the home of Thomas Nelson's Parkside Works. Nelson founded a second hand bookshop at 2 West Bow and in 1839 he founded a publishing firm along with his two sons at Hope Park near The Meadows. This was destroyed in a fire in 1878, prompting a move to Dalkeith Road which was home to Scottish Widows from 1976.
The printworks sounds nothing like the existing 1970s glass faced building. It was designed and built in ornate Scots baronial style with turrets, towers and crow stepped gables.
The Parkside works closed after the publisher merged with the Thomson Organisation in 1962.
Developer Ronald Lyons bought the site and obtained planning permission. Scottish Widows bought it from him at a premium which was intended to make up for his loss of anticipated profit.
The Board of Scottish Widows had instructed a move to a new site in 1969 from St Andrew Square. Surveyors Bernard Thorpe sought out the most suitable location within Edinburgh, but outside the city centre. Plentiful parking and easy travel were two main points in the brief. (It was after all 1969).