New school to be built on brewery site

A NEW high school is to be built on the site of Edinburgh’s historic Fountain Brewery after the city council won a bidding war.

The Lloyds Banking Group has agreed to sell the vast Fountainbridge site to the council, which won backing for the project last year from the Scottish Government.

The council would not disclose how much it had offered for the site, but it is believed to be a fraction of the £30 million that the bank paid brewing giants Scottish & Newcastle.

It is understood the school will only be built on part of the site, next to the Union Canal, which had been earmarked for a new headquarters building for the bank before the financial crisis took hold three years ago.

City education leader Marilyne MacLaren said: “I’m delighted that we have moved a step closer to securing a new home for Boroughmuir and to achieving our commitment to build three new secondary schools for Edinburgh.

“The school has been on the re-build list for many years and the school community had almost given up hope of finding a suitable site.”

The new site is at the bottom of Viewforth, around 500 metres from the existing school.