French connection for development of long-abandoned Old Town site

THE major expansion of a culture quarter in Edinburgh’s Old Town has been unveiled to help transform one of the capital’s longest-standing gap sites.

A temporary car park and run-down warehouse on Market Street, next to the City Art Centre and opposite the Fruitmarket Gallery, would be transformed by new arts complex, a new home for the French cultural institute and a boutique hotel.

The French Consulate would also move from its long-standing address in the city’s West End into part of the site, described by the city council – which is spearheading the plan – as one of the most strategically important in the Old Town.

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The “arts hub”, which is earmarked for the existing gap site, is hoped to provide a major boost to Edinburgh’s cultural reputation and help kickstart interest in other sites in the area.

It may become a new home for the creative industries, with the possibility of gallery, event and studio spaces, as well as “talent lab” modelled on the Toynbee Studios, in London, and the Arnolfini centre, in Bristol.

Among the ideas being discussed for the Market Street venture are shared retail and storage facilities, as well as a new cafe-bar spilling out onto an al fresco piazza.

The two sites had once been touted as a permanent headquarters for Edinburgh’s science festival and they were also proposed for an extension for the existing art centre, the council’s flagship gallery in the city, only for both projects to flounder due to funding problems.

The existing site has been lying empty since the 1960s when the council snapped up land occupied by a demolished tenement. The derelict warehouse, which has been vacant for more than 20 years, was used by the police to store vehicles which had been impounded.

Plans to redevelop the sites were revived after the French government asked the council for help to relocate its consulate, along with the French Institute, a 60-year-old language and cultural centre.

They currently occupy three townhouses on Randolph Crescent which are said to be costly to maintain. The French government was criticised three years ago when it emerged closure of the cultural institute was under consideration.

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However, the city council has revealed that the French government has agreed in principle to sell its West End property to help pay for a move to Market Street, which is also home to the Edinburgh Dungeon attraction, the administrative offices of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo and the city council’s own headquarters.

A report for the city council states: “The whole site occupies a prominent location on the north-facing edge of the Old Town, in the heart of the Unesco world heritage site.

“It is one of the last opportunities for development on the visual edge of the Old Town as seen from the north: a once in a lifetime chance to create an inspirational new public place which respects and enhances its important setting.”

A business plan for a joint venture between the French government and the council is expected to be agreed over the next months.