Edinburgh's Cowgate to rise from ashes

Published on Saturday 17 December 2005 00:46

A MULTI-million-pound deal has been struck to transform part of Edinburgh's historic Old Town which was destroyed by fire three years ago.

A hotel, offices, shops, bars, restaurants and a nightclub are set to be created as part of the scheme to fill the gap site between the Cowgate and South Bridge. New Sheriff Court buildings, a live music venue and flats are also likely to be part of the development, which will feature public closes and two mini-courtyards.

Whiteburn Projects, the firm responsible for an award- winning office complex in Holyrood Road, has agreed a deal to buy out eight site owners, just over three years after the blaze devastated a string of tenement buildings.

The deal is understood to be in the region of 4 million, and it is thought any scheme will cost at least 20 million to create.

The firm, which unveiled its plans yesterday, has fought off competition from 25 other developers interested in the site.

Allan Murray, the architect who won plaudits for designing the Tun building in Holyrood Road for Whiteburn, will also be working on the Cowgate project, which aims to see a "modernist and contemporary" building created on the site.

It is hoped a formal planning application will be lodged with Edinburgh City Council by next summer, with work beginning a year later.

John Shepherd, the chief executive of Whiteburn, said: "We're very pleased to have reached this agreement on the purchase of such an important site in the heart of the Old Town and look forward to the challenge of putting back a very significant building.

"We look forward, in due course, to securing the support of the council's planning department and the relevant statutory authorities.

"We'll be relishing the opportunity to create a 21st-century building to both enhance South Bridge and provide a new link from it to the Cowgate."

More than 150 fire engines from across central Scotland helped to tackle the flames for 52 hours until the fire was extinguished shortly before midnight on 9 December, 2002.

The blaze was blamed on a faulty fusebox, which destroyed 12 properties in the heart of the Old Town.

Among those to lose out in the wake of the Cowgate fire was the city comedy impresario Karen Koren, whose Gilded Balloon club played host to a string of big names over the years. But she was only a tenant in the building.

John McGregor, a chartered surveyor who helped to secure the deal, said: "In the last nine months, we have been resolving the complex web of legal interests and rights over the site.

"As well as the eight original parties directly affected by the fire, there are a further three parties associated with the buildings and a number of organisations that were required to adjust legal documents."

A spokesman for the joint owners said: "We're delighted that, after what has been a long journey, we're close to giving Edinburgh an opportunity to fill the Cowgate fire site and that, in Whiteburn, we believe that we've found an energetic and forward-thinking company that will see the project through to completion."