Our client for this project is Dragon Developments who are building up a portfolio of projects in the West End of Edinburgh. Manor Place is located within Edinburgh’s New Town and the area provides a mixture of commercial office and residential properties. The site for the project, 8 Manor Place, a traditional mid terrace Georgian townhouse, was used as office space although originally designed as a residential townhouse. Constructed in the 1860’s, it was listed as a category B building in 1970 and is located within the New Town Conservation Area and forms part of Edinburgh’s World Heritage Site.

When our client purchased the property the brief for the project was to convert the building from office space back to high end residential units. The ambitions for this project are to reinstate this building back to its originally intended use as a residential townhouse. Given the extent of the historic fabric which is largely intact we have designed the five units in a way which minimises impact on the building retaining all of the original cornicing, detailing and wall panelling which gives the building its character.

The basement unit contains a private courtyard to the front and private garden to the rear with parking. At ground floor level the proportions of the original rooms will be retained to create a large one-bedroom unit. At first floor level the principal room will be connected to the rest of the accommodation by a secret jib door which will be integrated with the existing wall panelling to create a two-bedroom unit. A studio unit is proposed at the second-floor level and the split level third and fourth floors will form a two-bedroom unit. This project is a combination of part restoration, conversion and modern intervention typical of the Edinburgh area.

The project was completed in August 2022.