Top Edinburgh architect Malcolm Fraser calls on council to help stop demolition of 'eyesore' Argyle House
'Madness' to bulldoze brutalist landmark next to Edinburgh Castle as it is 'sturdy, solid and useful'
A leading Scottish architect is calling on councillors to save a brutalist landmark next to Edinburgh Castle from demolition by serving a Building Preservation Notice.
Developers want to bulldoze Argyle House and redevelop the site for residential, hotel and office use. The office block in Lady Lawson Street - currently home to tech incubator CodeBase - has been labelled the city’s biggest eyesore.
But Edinburgh-based Malcolm Fraser - who has won awards for his work, which includes the Scottish Storytelling Centre in the Royal Mile, the nearby Scottish Poetry Library, and Dance Base in the Grassmarket - calls it a "distinguished modernist building". And he argues it would be "madness" to demolish it when it is "sturdy, solid and useful".
Scottish Government agency Historic Environment Scotland (HES) has ruled the 1969 construction qualifies for listed status, but says it will not give it because development proposals are "at an advanced stage".
However, HES added it would reconsider reconsider the listing of the building if the demolition proposals were not taken forward, or a Building Preservation Notice (BPN) was served by the local authority.
A local planning authority can serve a BPN on the owner and occupier of an unlisted building, if it believes the building to be of special architectural or historic interest and it is in danger of demolition or major alteration.
Now Mr Fraser has said the council should “show the backbone that HES so manifestly lacks” and issue a BPN on Argyle House in a bid to block the demolition plans. He also questioned the HES assertion that the development proposals were at an advanced stage, pointing out all that had happened was the lodging of a Proposal of Application Notice (PAN).
He said: “HES has ruled that Argyle House - currently in the consultation stage before a full demolition application - meets its criteria for listing, as being of ‘special architectural or historic interest’. But it has declined to formalise that ruling, as it views this ‘pre-application proposals’ stage as ‘advanced development proposals’. We have pointed out to them that ‘pre-application proposals’ are, in fact, proposals made pre-application.
“This highlights the strange fact that I - as all the people and institutions of Scotland - am encouraged, here, to comment and consult on matters of Built Heritage, but the Scottish Government’s own Built Heritage advisors believe they should sit on their hands.”
Mr Fraser continued: “Campaigners will be asking the council to show the backbone that HES so manifestly lacks: that, in order to save this built heritage, plus the tens of thousands of tonnes of carbon sent to landfill and the 900 tech jobs that will be lost to the inevitable tourist hordes, they must act as if Argyle House is listed and serve a Building Preservation Notice on it, then formally request HES to list it.”
Mr Fraser has already indicated how he believes Argyle House could be upgraded and improved rather than knocked down. His suggestions include decarbonisation, a “pocket park” and a public route through the building.
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