The shape of what might have been

Published on Sunday 4 May 2008 22:36

FOR nearly two centuries it has been the fraying edge of Edinburgh's New Town – an untidy piece of unfinished town planning and a case study for students of architecture.

Now an artist's image of Saxe-Coburg Place as it might have been if construction was not suddenly halted in 1834 is revealed for the first time.

The Scottish architectural painter Hugh Buchanan, whose works are bought by major British collections, was commissioned by architect Simon Laird to complete the missing numbers 16-22 Saxe-Coburg Place.

For two years, Mr Laird tried to persuade Edinburgh City Council to approve his idea of completing the semi-circle of Georgian homes.

Last week after repeated delays the city confirmed that a 5.3 million revamp and restoration of the Victorian-era Glenogle Baths, which currently occupy the Saxe-Coburg "gap", will begin in five months. The crescent will remain unfinished.

Mr Laird only commissioned Mr Buchanan's picture a month ago, but admitted: "This might have to be filed under what might have been."

Mr Laird's plan, while completing five new Georgian homes on the crescent, would have seen the Glenogle building redeveloped and incorporated as apartments.

A new baths and gym would be built on the site – at zero cost to the city, he claims. He and his project partner, the conservation architect James Simpson, blame "misunderstanding" and "bad communication" for the wave of objections that sank it.

The clean lines and clear light of Mr Buchanan's picture are typical of an artist who specialises in architectural watercolours and whose work is in the collections of the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the National Trust for Scotland and the House of Lords.

"He's a wonderful painter, Scotland's quintessential painter of classic buildings," Mr Laird said.

The work has now been submitted to the architectural section of the Royal Scottish Academy's annual exhibition.

Saxe-Coburg Place was originally designed by the New Town architect James Milne in 1821 as three sides of a rectangle. But the developer Adam Turnbull, who followed him, opted instead to finish it with a semicircular three-storey crescent.

He got halfway round before going bankrupt in 1834. It left Saxe-Coburg Place with the street numbers 1-15 and 23-32, and "toothmarks" in the stonework where the last buildings would have been attached.

In 1897 the Glenogle Baths were built. Mr Laird notes that The Buildings of Scotland, the bible of Scottish architectural history, describes the gap as being "clumsily filled" with the red sandstone baths, with a huge roof "looming up".

Mr Laird proposed his scheme with the backing of Mr Simpson, who specialises in work with historic buildings, and praised it as an "absolutely ingenious solution".

But prominent figures rallied to save the much-loved Victorian baths.

"The debate has never got beyond people who heard the baths were going to be replaced by flats and began protesting," said Mr Laird.

People were afraid they would lose control of any development, he added.

Yesterday the chairman of the Saxe-Coburg Residents Association could not be contacted.

Mr Laird said: "My arrogant architect's view would be, if people feel like that they don't deserve to live in a Georgian crescent."