Edinburgh declares most important historic buildings have been saved
It is a transformation that has secured the future of some of Edinburgh’s best-known landmarks, securing the future of long-neglected sites.
City leaders have declared almost all of the city’s most important historic buildings have now been saved. A decade’s worth of developments, and deals struck during the two years of the pandemic, are said to have tackled the vast majority of those said to be “at risk” across Edinburgh’s World Heritage Site.
Just two buildings with a category A-listing from government agency Historic Environment Scotland are expected to remain on the official register once a raft of ongoing projects in the Old and New Towns is complete.
Projects finished over the past decade include the redevelopment of a former Royal Bank of Scotland building on St Andrew Square into a hotel; the transformation of the 17thcentury townhouse off the Canongate where economist
Adam Smith lived into a new HQ for Heriot Watt’s business school; the conversion of a former home for astronomers on Calton Hill into luxury apartments, and a revamp of the 500-year Riddle’s Court tenement off the Lawnmarket to create a new events space.
Ongoing projects include the new Virgin Hotels Edinburgh, whichinvolvestherestoration of two listed buildings in the Old Town, and the transformation of the former Forsyth’s department store on Princes Street – more recently home to Topshop – into a hotel.
Agreements have also recently been reached to create a National Centre for Music at the former Royal High School on Calton Hill and a new visitor centre at the 17thcentury Tron Kirk.
Two A-listed sites still said to be at risk include the upper floors of All Bar One’s building on George Street, which is planned to be converted into flats, and a recently-sold property on Dublin Street North.
Neil Gardiner , the city council’s planning convener, said: “Over the last ten years, we’ve
helped developers make the best and most sympathetic use of many of our globally significant and architecturally stunning buildings so they can be
enjoyed now and for future generations to come.”
A spokesperson for Edinburgh World Heritage said: “It is welcome news that so many
of the city’s ‘at risk’ buildings have been conserved and given a new lease of life.”