Leith Fort Housing Regeneration

Supporting Statement

The Leith Fort Regeneration project is located in Leith, to the north of Edinburgh City Centre. The site sits within the historic confines of what was once a military fort, bounded on four sides by a 4.5m high stone fort wall. The wall is Category B listed, along with two existing guardhouses at the main entrance to the site. Whilst not in a conservation area, the Leith Conservation Area bounds the southeast edge of the site.

The site is approximately 1.7 hectares and prior to demolition in 2012, was home to a 7 storey 1960s residential tower block. The tower block was isolated within the confines of the existing fort walls but managed to dominate the surrounding area. It not only cut the site in two, but also did little to engage with its immediate context and latterly became a hub for anti-social behaviour. This project looked to redress these issues. Malcolm Fraser Architects secured the original planning permission in 2013.

The proposed housing is 3 storeys, which sits comfortably within the immediate context and relates more to the scale and massing of the surrounding residential buildings. The project reinterprets the traditional “colonies” terrace form, whose duplex over ground floor flats provide a popular and social model of city living. This typology not only provides a dense mix of housing, but also provides each flat with its own front door and private garden. In contrast to the Victorian layout our terraces are orientated south, with all gardens facing south. The shared fore-stair and grouped gardens encourage interaction and familiarity between neighbours in the same terrace, whilst the dual entrance arrangement to the front and rear of each terrace, encourages interaction between neighbours of adjacent terraces. The project has 7 terraces, totalling 94 new-build residential units centred around a communal green space, accessed from the historic gateway and houses. The existing Fort walls were reduced in height, to let sun and light into the gardens – which has allowed the houses and gardens to animate the street.

A new community green sits at the heart of the development, a positive focal point for the housing, optimising the principal community connections of the site to each adjacent street. The new green acknowledges an existing amenity space at the adjacent Hamilton Wynd housing, and a pedestrian route is created between the two to connect them, thereby opening up the site and helping to stitch it into the surrounding neighbourhood. It also provides a safe and convenient route through the site, helping to connect the surrounding streets and wider context.