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Edinburgh Waterfront
Announcements from 2006 onwards
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Projects Planned for Edinburgh Waterfront
Plans currently being considered by Forth
Ports Authority for Edinburgh Waterfront include:
- a new
cruise
liner terminal.
- extension of Ocean Terminal
shopping and leisure complex.
- transformation of
VA Tech factory
into an art gallery.
- up to 18,000 new homes.
- a hotel and casino complex.
- a concert venue.
Herald & Post: March 23, 2006: p.11 |
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Ten-mile Broadwalk
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Cramond to Joppa
It was announced in the press on 9 January 2006
that Edinburgh City Council are expected to study a £1.5bn plan to create
a ten-mile "broadwalk" along Edinburgh's waterfront, along the Firth of
Forth from Cramond to Joppa.
This is a ten to fifteen year vision. It includes:
- GRANTON & LEITH: protecting the
seafront promenade from any large-scale developments being built in the
Waterfront developments at Granton and Leith. There would be links
with the new marina at Granton and the proposed new cruise liner terminal
at Leith.
- PORTOBELLO: upgrading of the
existing promenade.
- SEAFIELD: moving the car showrooms and warehouses
and opening up nearly a mile of beach at Seafield. On this land
there would be shops, bars, restaurants, housing and the modern equivalent of
Marine Gardens Pleasure Park, possibly including fairground rides, a
theatre or concert venue and sports facilities.
The original Marine Gardens Pleasure Park was
constructed at Seafield in
1909
on the site now occupied by Lothian Buses bus depot. It had a
ballroom, theatre, amusement park and figure of eight roller coaster and
speedway track. The site was taken over by the military as billets
in 1914. Many of the attractions never re-opened, though the
ballroom and speedway track survived until 1939.
Marine Gardens - 1909
©
It is not expected that the recently upgraded
Seafield Sewage Works would move from Seafield. Instead, there might
be guided tours of the works, with an environmental theme, and new sludge
tanks and methane containment domes with a structural elegance!
Edinburgh
Evening News January 9, 2006: pp.1,8,9 |
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'Via Albana'?
Edinburgh Council has undertaken a consultation
exercise and found that it's suggested name: 'Broadwalk' is not
popular, being considered to be too American and suggesting that a timber
structure is to be built.
The Cockburn Association has suggested the name
'Via Albana' or 'Via Romana'
'Alba' is the Latin name for Scotland
- and there was a Roman Camp at either end of the walk. At the
Cramond end the Roman fort was the headquarters of Septimus
Severus.
Edinburgh
Evening News May 23, 2006: p.10 |
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A New Waterfront Island?
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Teardrop-shaped Island?
Proposals were announced in 2004 to create a nine-acre teardrop-shaped island in the Firth of Forth to the
north of the one remaining gasometer, connected to the shore by a
causeway.
©
Thistle-shaped Island - proposed
However, following criticism of the initial
plans, the latest proposals, at March 2006, are to create a more craggy
island, possibly in the shape of a thistle, the national emblem of
Scotland.
Edinburgh Evening News March 22,
2006: p.3 |
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Palm-shaped Island - comparison
An article in the Edinburgh Evening News on March
22, 2006 - headline: "Thistle be a real fantasy island" - compared
the proposed island in the Firth of Forth with Palm Island, a
man-made island off the coast of Dubai, built in the shape of a date palm.
Liam
Rudden, writing in the Edinburgh Evening News, three days later asked:
"So what does Dubai have that the proposed
Edinburgh Waterfront doesn't? Simply, sunshine".
Commenting on Edinburgh's weather, he said:
"As anyone who has ever stood by the
weather-beaten old lighthouse that guards the entrance to Newhaven
Harbour, well wrapped up against the howling easterly winds and driving
sleet that sweep in off the Forth will know, Edinburgh's waterfront can be
an inhospitable place."
Edinburgh Evening News March 25,
2006: p.13 |
Thistle-shaped Island
- shelved
City of Edinburgh planners have rejected
developers' proposals to create a new thistle-shaped island in the Firth
of Forth to the west of Granton Harbour. They have told developers
that they should first concentrate on developing existing land.
Waterfront Edinburgh received this message from
the planners without ever having submitted a formal application for the
island to the to the City of Edinburgh planning committee.
Alan Couper, planning chief at Waterfront
Edinburgh said: "The idea is pretty much now dead. We hope we may be
able to return to it but it will not be for a very long time."
Edinburgh Evening News September 25,
2006: p.9 |
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New
Images from Waterfront Edinburgh |
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Telford College
Edinburgh's Telford College near the SW corner of
the Waterfront development opened in September 2006.
New Images
New images of proposed future developments have
been released by Waterfront Edinburgh. Developments proposed
include:
- A water feature 'snaking down to the
Firth of Forth, to be lit up at night', to begin 2007.
- A new Concert Hall, expected to be built
at Granton, Newhaven or Leith.
- A 'culture hub' around the old
lighthouse.
©
- Shops on West Harbour Road.
©
- Hotels, theatres and offices on land near
the Scottish Gas HQ.
©
- Exclusive townhouses in the old walled
garden next to Caroline Park House.
©
- Residential development on the site of the
former Shanks chemical reprocessing plant
Edinburgh Evening News September 25,
2006: p.9 |
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1500 More Homes? |
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Former Gasworks Site
Developers, National Grid Properties, say that
they now wish to increase the number of new homes to be built
on the former gasworks site at Granton from 2,000 (in the original
blueprint) to 3,500.
This would increase the number of people expected
to move to the Waterfront over the next fifteen years from 35,000 (in the
blueprint) to almost 40,000.
National Grid Properties claim that the high
demand for houses in the area justify this increase.
Others have expressed concern over the increased
traffic and possible lack of community facilities that might result from
adding so many new homes to the plan.
Edinburgh Evening News September 25,
2006: p.9 |
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Granton Gasholders |
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3, 2, 1 Gasholders
Granton Gas works were built around 1900.
At one time it had three large gasholders, prominent landmarks beside the
Firth of Forth.
©
The first of these was dismantled in 2003 and the
second was removed in a controlled explosion in 2004.
©
The third gasholder is now 106 years old.
It had a capacity of 7 million cubic feet of gas until gas, but
production at Granton ceased in 1987.
The gasholder was 'Listed' by Historic Scotland
in 1998 and so enjoys some protection.
©
However, Historic Scotland and National Grid
Properties recently hired consultants to produce an engineers' report on
the gasholder.
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Possible Demolition
The engineers' report is understood to have
highlighted problems in maintaining the gasholder in a safe state.
Large parts of its latticework structure were described as being
"inaccessible".
National Grid Properties which owns the land on
which the gasholder stands are now looking at the possibility of
demolishing the gasholder.
Views of the local community on whether or not
the gasholder should be retained appear to be mixed.
National Grid Properties are understood to be
keen to see the gasometer removed, to free up land for new building.
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Most of the details above are taken from an
article in Evening News January 6, 2007\: pp.1,3 |
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Granton-Newhaven Beach and Promenade |
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Former Gasworks Site
As part of the long-term vision of a ten-mile
promenade along the Firth of Forth between Cramond and Joppa, it has been
proposed that sand should be dredged from the Firth of Forth to create a
new beach.
A new sea wall, a full width seafront promenade,
access points between Granton and Newhaven and a tramway reservation are
also proposed.
This project has been discussed between Forth
Ports Authority, the principal land owner and the City of Edinburgh
Council, but this is likely to be a 15-year project.
Edinburgh Evening News March 21,
2007: p.11 |
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Forth Ports' Masterplan |
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Leith Docks
30-year plan
Forth Ports has submitted a 30-year plan for the
regeneration of Leith Docks to the City of Edinburgh Council for outline
planning permission. It is the largest planning application ever to
have come before the council. It proposes creating on their 144
hectare site:
- 16,000 homes (including 4,000
'affordable units') in 9 'urban villages'.
- shops, leisure facilities and a major new
concert hall.
- 12,000 new jobs.
Forth Ports' proposals have been welcomed by the
Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce and business leaders. Independent
assessors have estimated that the proposed developments at Western Harbour
and Granton will attract £5.6 billion of private investment.
Local organisations, politicians and others have
stressed the importance of maintaining a sense of community in Leith.
The large number of one and two bedroom apartments now being created there
could lead to a very transient population.
Other Developments
Other developments that have been considered
include:
- doubling the size of Ocean Terminal
shopping centre.
- creating a cruise liner terminal to
attract 150 ships a year to Edinburgh. In 2007, about 50 ships
visited Edinburgh
- building a 30-storey hotel and flats
complex. This would become the tallest building in Edinburgh.
- creating a 12-metre high steel
"crow's nest viewing platform", inspired by Leith's shipbuilding history,
beside Albert Dock. This would cost up to £250,000.
Visitors
would be able to climb onto the structure to gain views of Edinburgh and
the Firth of Forth. It would also have information panels about the
history of Leith and future plans for Edinburgh's Waterfront.
Edinburgh Evening News September 4,
2007 pp.1, 12, 13
Edinburgh Evening News September 5,
2007 pp.22, 23
Edinburgh Evening News August 30,,
2007: p.7 (The "Crow's Nest")
Edinburgh Evening News September 6,
2007: p.5 (The "Crow's Nest") |
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Around Ocean Terminal
10-year plan
Further
details of Forth Ports' plans for for development of the area around Ocean
Terminal, over the next ten years, have now been announced. A
detailed outline planning application to be submitted ot the council in
spring 2008.
Proposals
include:
- creating a 'leisure village' and a new
marina, and possibly moving The Royal Yacht Britannia across Western
Harbour to berth beside a new pier to the west of where the cruise
liners now berth.
Liners up
to 50,000 tonnes would continue to berth at Western Harbour and larger
liners would berth at a new liner terminal.
- creating two new public parks and a
public square.
- building two 'towering new
landmarks' expected to house hotels, luxury flats and up to 1000 new
homes. These would be built on new piers in Western Harbour.
- building new apartments, some on
stilts above the water on the northern edge of Victoria Dock. The
Scottish Government 's headquarters are on the southern edge of Victoria
Dock.
- creating a new commercial district with
office blocks, shops and walkways, between Ocean Terminal and The Scottish
Government's headquarters.
Edinburgh Evening News, October 29,
2007 pp.8, 9 |
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Near Granton Harbour |
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In March
2005, architects RMJM announced plans to build an
'Eco-Tower'
with energy created from 50 wind turbines slung between two towers, on the
site of William Waugh's scrap yard in West Granton Road, on the western
side of Granton Square.
It has
been argued that this site, close to the entrance to Granton Harbour
should be used for a landmark building of some sort.
However
plans for the Eco-Tower are not now to go ahead and it has been announced
that, instead, 143 "low cost" flats are to be built on the site.
Edinburgh Evening News October27,
2007: p.4 |
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