Restorations remove entries from register

OF the 16 Edinburgh city centre buildings deemed ten years ago to be of architectural and historic significance but also ‘at risk’, just two remain at risk – according to the city’s local authority.

Says The City of Edinburgh Council of the ‘Category A-listed’ buildings that featured on an ‘at risk’ register in 2012, 14 from 16 have been restored or are about to be be restored.

The register – titled Buildings at Risk Register and which has been going since 1990 – is maintained by the Scottish Government ‘quango’, Historic Environment Scotland.

The outstanding pair are (1) on George Street (here) and (2) Dublin Street North Lane (here), albeit the latter appears to be undergoing restoration.

The 14 (as described by the council) are: Old Royal High School is to become a music school; India Buildings on Victoria Street will shortly reopen as a hotel; City Observatory is now an art gallery for contemporary art; the former Donaldson’s School for the Deaf, including the gate lodges, has been restored and transformed into housing; Riddle’s Court in the Lawnmarket is now the headquarters of Scottish Historic Buildings Trust; Acheson House is home to Edinburgh World Heritage; Panmure House is now Heriot Watt’s Edinburgh Business school; Upper floors of 30 Princes Street, including the gilded globe roof sculpture of the former Forsyth’s department store, are now a hotel; 27 and 29-31 Melville Street has been turned into offices; 9 Rutland Square has been brought back into residential use; 26 Heriot Row has been brought back into residential use; 8 Blenheim Place has been brought back into residential use; 1-3 Baxter’s Place is now a hotel; and 42 St Andrew Square is now the Edinburgh Grand, a luxury all-apartment residence.

Pictured: India Buildings, Picture credit: Place Design Scotland

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