[Kenspeckle]

Location: East Market Street / Cranston Street / New Street / Canongate

Cost: £150m

Developer: Artisan REI.

Architects: Allan Murray Architects, Comprehensive Design Architects

16,500m² office space
3 hotels (400 beds)
28 retail businesses
145 residential units
40 affordable homes
Community facility
£6.5m civic square

Current Status: Planning (residential element approved)

Royal Mile Hotel (146 bed). Ground floor restaurant/cafe and retail units. Retains frontage of existing Canongate tenements. Old Sailor's Ark (1934-36) facade retained and serves as the hotel entrance. A new 2-storey arched pend created through MacRae tenements at 221-225 Canongate to allow pedestrian access.

Canongate Venture. 2-storey former school (1900-01) converted for restaurant/cafe and community use. Existing stone plinth removed and replaced with glazed addition.

East Market Street Hotels (1 x 130 bed, 1 x 127 bed, restaurant/cafe and retail units)

Jeffrey Street Arches Refurbishment of existing archways under the Jeffrey Street rampart, creating sixteen "artisan" units for a mix of activities (arts/retail). Addition of glazed building on current gap site at the corner of Cranston Street, intended for restaurant use. Roof of new building is level with Jeffrey Street above and serves as a public terrace with a rotunda pavilion cafe.

Northern Site (CG3). 16,500 sq. metres of high quality grade A office space across three interconnected buildings. Retail and restaurant/cafe units on the first two floors fronting the new public square.

Courtyard Building. Mixed-use residential blocks with commercial uses at ground floor level: retail, restaurant/cafe and studio offices, fronting new public square.

Additional Residential (Comprehensive Design Architects). Four blocks between Calton Road and new public square.

Affordable Housing (Comprehensive Design Architects). 40 homes across three buildings facing Calton Road with ground floor retail.

 

[cosmictanya]

looks great - but surely they can fit more flats in than that.

whatever - 40 lucky people to rehoused there! are the 40 affordable flats included in the 145 residential units stated as a separate figure?

 

[Kenspeckle]

looks great - but surely they can fit more flats in than that.

whatever - 40 lucky people to rehoused there! are the 40 affordable flats included in the 145 residential units stated as a separate figure?

185 residential units total, 40 of which are affordable. Sorry of that wasn't clear.

 

[maccoinnich]

I've gotten out of the habit of reading the Edinburgh Evening News, now that it's 6 years since I've lived in Edinburgh. How are the current plans being received? Is there still the same amount of anger/hostility?

 

[Kenspeckle]

I've gotten out of the habit of reading the Edinburgh Evening News, now that it's 6 years since I've lived in Edinburgh. How are the current plans being received? Is there still the same amount of anger/hostility?

Hard to tell but I don't think so. I haven't been aware of any hue and cry this time, but I avoid the letters page of the EEN (and its online equivalent). My feeling is those with negative views are probably resigned to the project moving ahead. The previous scheme under Mountgrange was approved so I think it's all but certain that Artisan's attempt will be too, especially since it removes a few of the more contentious elements of the former. Namely, the demolition of the Canongate Venture and Old Sailor's Ark, the realignment of Cranston Street, a large building blocking views from Jeffrey Street, and a link bridge across New Street. The only remaining aspect of the scheme guaranteed to cause some upset is the creation of a new 2-storey arched pend through the MacRae tenements.

I feel sure that the Cockburn Association and others will kick up a fuss about this (and rightly so), but then again, it was part of the previously approved scheme so maybe they know any protest would be futile.

 

[Ultima]

I honestly like the arch and I love what it brings to the area as a whole. Edinburgh is a city of alcoves and passageways.

 

[Kenspeckle]

I honestly like the arch and I love what it brings to the area as a whole. Edinburgh is a city of alcoves and passageways.

Personally, I'm torn. I understand the necessity of opening up the site to the Canongate - it will benefit both areas - especially with Edinburgh University's Post-Grad "urban village" at Holyrood North (1000+ student flats, plus restaurants, bars, offices and shops) currently under construction directly to the south, but punching through those 1930s tenements just seems a bit brutal. On the positive side, the narrow single storey opening on the left (with the black shopfront in the existing picture) is the restoration of the eighteenth century Big Jack's Close, which is nice. I'm just surprised that the developers seem to have gone out of their way to scrap or alter elements of the scheme which upset conservation bodies last time but this is unchanged.

 

[Leki]

Great threads Kenspeckle!

I had a look to see if the old Save Our Old Town campaign (http://www.eh8.org.uk/) had anything to say on the new plans, but their page is still dormant. I did find this old 2005 plan - I hadn't realised the original developers wanted to knock the tenements down completely for a road!

The anonymous little closes are one of the charms of the Royal Mile, but I can understand why the new developers want to keep the larger arch. For some reason on the visualisation, the reopened close appears larger than it seems to on GSV, especially compared to the St John Street arch.

Either way, I'm sure the Cockburn Association will make a fuss if it thinks it'll help justify its membership. :cheers:

 

[Kenspeckle]

Great threads Kenspeckle!

I had a look to see if the old Save Our Old Town campaign (http://www.eh8.org.uk/) had anything to say on the new plans, but their page is still dormant. I did find this old 2005 plan - I hadn't realised the original developers wanted to knock the tenements down completely for a road!

The anonymous little closes are one of the charms of the Royal Mile, but I can understand why the new developers want to keep the larger arch. For some reason on the visualisation, the reopened close appears larger than it seems to on GSV, especially compared to the St John Street arch.

Either way, I'm sure the Cockburn Association will make a fuss if it thinks it'll help justify its membership. :cheers:

Nice find, Leki. The fabulously named Independent Republic of the Canongate protest blog also seems to have been abandoned so the Resistance seems to have all but evaporated.

That "Parliament Way" proposal certainly was pretty brutal. The one good thing about it which is missing from the current scheme are the new set of steps leading from Calton Road to Regent Road. I think they would have been a great addition but my understanding is the current steps (which are pretty hard to find) are at least getting "improved" as part of the Calton Road Affordable Housing scheme so that's something.

I'm sure the Cockburn Association will stir to life eventually on the issue but I'm really surprised to have heard nothing from them already - they're usually pretty vocal and quick of the mark.

 

[Leki]

Nice find, Leki. The fabulously named Independent Republic of the Canongate protest blog also seems to have been abandoned so the Resistance seems to have all but evaporated.

That "Parliament Way" proposal certainly was pretty brutal. The one good thing about it which is missing from the current scheme are the new set of steps leading from Calton Road to Regent Road. I think they would have been a great addition but my understanding is the current steps (which are pretty hard to find) are at least getting "improved" as part of the Calton Road Affordable Housing scheme so that's something.

I'm sure the Cockburn Association will stir to life eventually on the issue but I'm really surprised to have heard nothing from them already - they're usually pretty vocal and quick of the mark.

Ah yes, I remember that name! I suppose there's not much left to argue about unless their stance is simply anti-development.

The Old Sailor's Ark is still just going to be a façade retention, but the back of the building isn't original by the looks of it. They could also argue that the style of the development should be more in keeping - like the ANTA proposal from a while back:

The stairs will probably be missed from the original plan. I didn't even know there were stairs that far along - certainly the ones that lead up from the slightly sinister entrance under the railway bridge are littered with broken glass, Tennet's cans and feral teenagers. If not rebuilt, they could definitely do with a clean up.

 

[Kenspeckle]

Ah yes, I remember that name! I suppose there's not much left to argue about unless their stance is simply anti-development.

The Old Sailor's Ark is still just going to be a façade retention, but the back of the building isn't original by the looks of it. They could also argue that the style of the development should be more in keeping - like the ANTA proposal from a while back:

The stairs will probably be missed from the original plan. I didn't even know there were stairs that far along - certainly the ones that lead up from the slightly sinister entrance under the railway bridge are littered with broken glass, Tennet's cans and feral teenagers. If not rebuilt, they could definitely do with a clean up.

The ANTA proposal is a little too Disney pastiche for me - like the Scandic Crown writ large. The tourists (and the Cockburn folk) would probably have loved it!

As far as the Old Sailor's Ark goes, I think it's all original. The Canongate facade looks much older than it actually is, using 17th c. style sandstone detailing. Whereas the red brick rear section, which fronts New Street, is more representative of its 1936 origins. As you say, only the facade is being retained in the current scheme.

 

[Moschops]

The ANTA proposal is a little too Disney pastiche for me - like the Scandic Crown writ large. The tourists (and the Cockburn folk) would probably have loved it!

Completely agree. I'm not a fan of the Scandic Crown. Though it does make me chuckle to occasionally see tourists taking photos of it. If they're taking photos because they genuinely think it's an interesting building then fair enough, but I suspect they usually think it's a lot older that it is. I remember it being built..

 

[maccoinnich]

The ANTA proposal is a little too Disney pastiche for me - like the Scandic Crown writ large.

Funny you should draw that comparision, as both Ian Begg (architect of the Scandic Crown) and Lachlan Stewart (of ANTA) have lived in Plockton. I would imagine they know each other.

 

[Kenspeckle]

Funny you should draw that comparision, as both Ian Begg (architect of the Scandic Crown) and Lachlan Stewart (of ANTA) have lived in Plockton. I would imagine they know each other.

Lovely place. Plockton. Not the Scandic Crown. Though the latter bothers me less than it once did.

 

[Leki]

It's started again... :bash:

Caltongate will become ‘Nowheresville’ - critics

Scotsman 03 October 2013

DEVELOPERS trying to revive a controversial development in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town have been accused of treating the historic environment with “contempt” and threatening its unique character with “foreign” features out of keeping with the area.

A large swathe of land next to Waverley Station faces being turned into “Nowheresville” and dominated by a “sad collection of concrete boxes”, according to critics of the new Caltongate plans.

• Re-approved Caltongate plans renew heritage fears

Edinburgh City Council, which is expected to decide on the £150 million scheme later this year, has been warned that the South African consortium behind the scheme will damage the whole nature of the Old Town if it gets the go-ahead.

Among the key areas of criticism are a continental-style public square, the creation of a “mega-pend” where historic tenements currently sit on the Canongate section of the Royal Mile, and the addition of new glass pavilions in front of existing “arches” buildings on Market Street.

The 600,000 sq ft Caltongate site - which has been at the centre of more than a decade of planning wrangles - was bought out of administration two years ago. At the time developers Artisan said the project offered “unparalleled opportunities for a high quality development that can do justice to its unique and spectacular setting.”

But the criticism for its plans - being masterminded by Edinburgh architect Allan Murray - is almost as strong as that which met a previous blueprint for the site, which would have seen the creation of a five-star hotel and conference centre facing onto the Royal Mile.

Those plans, approved by the city council in the face of huge opposition, were criticised by inspectors at world heritage body Unesco during a major inquiry into the city’s world heritage status. The new developers accepted key recommendations from the body to try to stave off a new wave of opposition.

However the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland and the Cockburn Association, the city’s main heritage watchdog, have delivered damning verdicts on the scheme, which will see the creation of 175 new homes, several new hotels and almost 30 new shops - but involve “urban clearances” to make way for them.

The AHSS has accused a South African-led consortium of developers of trying to put “lowest-common-denominator, conveyor-belt, square-footage production” buildings on what is part of the Edinburgh World Heritage site.

The Cockburn Association has warned the city council that the plans will “impose New Town-like neo-classical spaces and buildings over the previous medieval pattern.”

James Simpson, vice-president for Scotland at ICOMOS, the UK advisory body to Unesco, said the images he had viewed of the new Caltongate plans were “totally inappropriate” for Edinburgh’s Old Town.

Tom Parnell, who has written to the council on behalf of the AHSS, said: “The proposed use of the arches facing East Market Street is perhaps the only part of the overall scheme that is to be genuinely welcomed, and we have high hopes for these.

“Unfortunately the remainder of the development shows the same level of disregard, misinterpretation, lack of ambition and indeed contempt for this important site in the Old Town conservation area as was found in the previous scheme.

“The rather sad collection of concrete boxes with veneers of architectural motif might be acceptable in out-of-town Nowheresville, but to propose this for the heart of a World Heritage Site? This is not architecture – this is lowest-common-denominator, conveyor-belt, square-footage production.

“It is inappropriate, contrary to all planning guidance on good quality architecture and in clear contravention of local plan policies.”

Mr Parnell said the developers and architects had put more effort into producing “glitzy” images of the scheme to try to impress public officials and councillors than trying to understand the history of the Canongate area.

He added: “We urge the council to look beyond misleading sales-brochure material – look at the ‘architecture’. Look at the proposed uses of the buildings. Look at how awful the whole scheme still is.”

In her submission to the council, Cockburn Association director Marion Williams states: “The unique aspect of Edinburgh’s World Heritage Site is the proximity, difference and distinctiveness of the Old and New Towns, in a relationship which exists nowhere else in the World.

“We are concerned therefore that the proposed street layout over much of the (Caltongate) site intends to impose New Town-like neo-classical spaces and buildings over the previous mediaeval pattern.

“The key space in the layout is a civic square, a feature which is foreign to the Old Town. Furthermore it is used to ‘terminate’ East Market Street, again an inappropriate conceit borrowed from the New Town.

“Fronting onto this space is an office building with a rotunda-like end-form, another neo-classical inspired design complete with shallow-pitched roof, symmetry and regular rhythm. The design philosophy could not be more inappropriate if it tried. Stitching together the fragments of the Old Town cannot be achieved by changing it into the New Town.”

Mr Simpson told The Scotsman: “These images are totally inappropriate for a site as important as this one in the Old Town and the Edinburgh World Heritage site. I don’t see much of an improvement on the previous plans at all.”

Mr Murray’s architectural practice says the Caltongate development will “bring a new vibrant place surrounded by a mix of new uses infusing new life into this important area of the city.”

His website states: “Bringing new houses and people to live back in the city centre is an important aspect of the regeneration as is its potential to attract tourists and the creation of new festival spaces.”

However the Save Our Old Town campaign, which led protests over the previous scheme, has revived its efforts, publishing posters asking: “Do we want more hotels and tourist shops for old Old Town? Do we want this horror visited on our Old Town.”

A spokesman for Artisan said: “Our planning application followed more than 18-months of in-depth consultation with local communities and stakeholders.

“We have listened to, and taken on board, a huge variety of views and opinions on the development of the site, and heard impassioned arguments relating to its unique importance, setting, heritage and community.

“We feel our planning application reflects this varied, dynamic and open consultation process and we feel we now have a proposal which balances ambitious and flexible commercial priorities with a genuine understanding of the area’s community and civic context.

“We are now delivering on our promises made when we first started this process some 18 months ago, bringing international capital investment of £150 million to the table coupled with the vision and commitment needed to complete what has already been started.”

 

[ken2000ac]

I wonder what type of plans would please these critics?

 

[Monkey9000]

This is what the site needs:

Credit: Fashion Architecture Taste

epper:

 

[Moschops]

I wonder what type of plans would please these critics?

That's pretty much what I was thinking when I read that.

I do get that there were specific issues with the previous plans (demolition of listed buildings, the proposed building on the corner of Jeffrey Street which would have affected the view across to Calton Hill for example) but the revised plans seem to have addressed most of those.

The line that got me was “We are concerned therefore that the proposed street layout over much of the (Caltongate) site intends to impose New Town-like neo-classical spaces and buildings over the previous mediaeval pattern."

The site was an enormous red-brick bus depot since the 1930s and before that had been a gasworks from the 1850s, any medieval pattern of closes on that particular site have been gone for a very long time.

 

[Kenspeckle]

Compact hotel to open in Edinburgh as part of £150m development

STV Edinburgh - 19th December, 2013

A compact hotel is one of two set to open on the derelict Caltongate gap site in Edinburgh.

An international consortium headed by Artisan Real Estate Investors are planning on building a £150m mix of leisure, retail and offices linking New Street and East Market Street with Waverley station and the Royal Mile.

It will be centred around a £6.5m civic square with office space, 28 retail units, 145 residential units and 40 affordable homes.

On Monday, Artisan announced that two Premier Inns would open on the site. This includes a 127-room hotel and a 130-room Hub by Premier Inn, the first of the more compact hotels to open outside of London.

Both will sit next to each other with entrances on East Market Street and Cranston Street.

With planning permission yet to be approved, building work on the site is expected to start next year.

John Bates, from Whitbread Hotels, said: "This is another outstanding deal for Premier Inn. It gives us more than 257 new bedrooms in central Edinburgh and also our first new Hub by Premier Inn outside London.

"We are now set to have two great Premier Inn products side-by-side in a superb new development in the heart of the Old Town - and close to Waverley Station. It is more exciting growth for us in Scotland and another big result for our customers."

The deal has been welcomed by developers Artisan.

Managing director Lukas Nakos said: "There has been huge interest in the site from hotel operators around the world, and I am pleased that an operator of Whitbread’s stature and pedigree has chosen to significantly invest in the city.

"High quality hotel provision will be the cornerstone of our development, and it’s great to see how innovative leisure concepts such as the Hub will add vibrancy, excitement and colour to our plans. We will be placing strong emphasis on the quality of design and materials to ensure both hotels reflect their historic Royal Mile setting – as well as ensuring that the wider area benefits from the increased visitor spend."

 

[Kenspeckle]

Caltongate Hotel to be first in UK with its own app

Urban Realm - 10th January, 2014

Whitbread has announced that it has reached agreement with Artisan Real Estate Investors to deliver a twin hotel development In Edinburgh’s Old Town.

The deal will see a 127 room Premier Inn and a 130 room Hub by Premier Inn built on the five acre Caltongate site, with Lawrence McPherson Associates acting as architectural consultant for both schemes.

They will sit on adjacent plots overlooking East market Street and Cranston Street and will sit within a wider £150m development of public space, shops, restaurants, homes and offices.

Stephen McGhee, principal at Lawrence McPherson Associates said "This is an exciting development to be part of and we are particularly excited about being involved in the first Hub by Premier Inn being constructed outside London."

"This compact concept is innovative in its design. Not only are the rooms only 11.4sq.m with every centimetre optimised but it will be the UK's first hotel with its own app which allows guests to control temperature, lighting and TV from their smart phones."

Lukas Nakos, Artisan’s managing director added: “High quality hotel provision will be the cornerstone of our development, and it’s great to see how innovative leisure concepts such as the Hub will add vibrancy, excitement and colour to our plans. We will be placing strong emphasis on the quality of design and materials to ensure both hotels reflect their historic Royal Mile setting – as well as ensuring that the wider area benefits from the increased visitor spend.”

Work on the scheme could start as early as mid-2014.