Plans to turn empty Princes Street floorspace into housing

Published on Wednesday 21 January 2009 08:44

THE space above shops in the city centre would be used to create affordable housing under plans being promoted by a leading heritage body.

Edinburgh World Heritage, the organisation which oversees the city's World Heritage Site, is to launch a drive to find ways of bringing empty upper floors back into use.

It hopes to identify a block on Princes Street before the end of the year where it can carry out a pilot study. It would then work with owners and tenants to draw up plans for using empty space.

This could include housing as well as a range of other potential uses, such as office space.

Any housing created on Princes Street is likely to be penthouse apartments but it is hoped that once the principle is established, it will be put into practice in other parts of the city centre. South Bridge is seen as one area where there are large amounts of empty space above shops which could be used for affordable housing.

The heritage organisation says Scotland has unique challenges to such development because there are sometimes several owners within one building.

The nature of Edinburgh as a historic city can also make development difficult, particularly on Princes Street, where the upper floors are often accessed via stairs within shops.

Adam Wilkinson, director at Edinburgh World Heritage, said: "The advantages to bringing these vacant spaces back into use are very clear, and so we are certainly keen to investigate how it could be done within the World Heritage Site.

"We support any project to bring the vacant floors above shops back into use.

Such a scheme would also help to maintain the city's historic buildings and keep the city centre alive."

Change was possible, he said, providing that all interested parties were willing to co-operate.

It is hoped that by starting with one block on Princes Street, similar local projects can follow elsewhere.

Heritage leaders were yesterday due to meet with city development leaders to discuss how to take the proposals forward.

The city council is working on its own "string of pearls" plan for Princes Street with the aim of encouraging owners to develop several distinct blocks.

Councillor Tom Buchanan, the city's economic development convener, said: "It is encouraging to see the growing recognition of the need to take positive steps to invigorate the upper floors of Princes Street and surrounding properties. The 'string of pearls' project has been promoting and facilitating this as part of its programme.

"It will be working closely with Edinburgh World Heritage to further investigate how to ensure our city centre is a most desirable place, not just to work and play, but to live, study, visit and invest."