SURPRISE! AMA (New Town) Limited has revealed that PBSA — Purpose-Built Student Accommodation — is at the heart of their plans for a ‘partial demolition and redevelopment’ of the Summerhall site.
But I hear you cry: of the four options AMA has put out for public consultation, there’s only one where PBSA essentially takes over the majority of the site! The other three offer different visions for a mixed-use site, complete with hotels, some commercial units, and where the Royal Dick pub is allowed to survive.
Reader, take a look at the images the developer (now 23 years and change overdue in delivering a promised Cramond sports complex) has put out for your consideration. As things stand, over 100 businesses occupy Summerhall’s crumbling architecture, including a successful brewery and an internationally famous gin distillery, as well as a village of artisans and creative professionals. I don’t see space for them in AMA’s vision of a polished, student-friendly ‘Arts Quarter’, do you?
These businesses aren’t freeloaders: the rent they’ve paid over the years has helped keep the lights on at Summerhall. Change is inevitable, but in every AMA proposal, much of Summerhall’s unique heart will be ripped out. Edinburgh is supposed to be a world capital of the arts, and yet in the past week, student accommodation developers have served notice on the ~150 artists leasing space in St Margaret’s House, and Summerhall’s new owners have declared their intent to visit the same blight on their new property.
“The proposed vision for Summerhall is to create a thriving Arts Quarter with a vibrant mix of uses that would sustain it into the future.” Statement taken from https://www.summerhallconsultation.co.uk/index.php
The Dundas Street Precedent: A Familiar Student Housing Switcheroo
You might argue that there are three options where PBSA is somewhat under control; can we rest easy? Those with modest memories might remember that the enormous New Town Quarter development on Dundas Street was first proposed as a £250m mixed-use scheme delivering approximately 350 homes—comprising Build-to-Rent, private, and affordable housing—alongside 80,000–100,000 sq ft of Grade-A office space, a boutique hotel, and new public parkland connections. You’ll actually get a residential-led scheme featuring 315 residential homes (including 108 mid-market rent/affordable units) and 591 to 599 PBSA bedspaces.
Whatever AMA agrees, and the planners approve, only the most optimistic will be surprised when they make the same switcheroo or worse. Why? Because AMA are a self-described ‘luxury house builder’ — they aren’t in business to build an arts-centred development. They’ve had 23 years to deliver the Cramond Sports Complex, and there’s no sign of them ever delivering it. That’s not a track record to instill anyone with confidence, now is it?
Of course, even if AMA deliver the most ‘mixed’ of their proposals (Proposal 3), there’s no vision of true mixed-use on offer. The commercial and arts functions will be cut off from one another; the alchemy that mix offers will be poisoned by intervening hotel and residential blockers.
Lessons from the Filmhouse: Can Edinburgh Save Summerhall?
Look, I’m no wide-eyed lunatic; of course the Summerhall site needs a radical intervention to make it commercially viable now and in the future. However, if AMA’s proposals are the best the city can muster for an endangered, but vital piece of our arts infrastructure, the future is not bright.
However, there is hope. Filmhouse on Lothian Road was destined to be a theme pub before a radical, locally-sourced intervention saved the day. The city’s planners could refuse to rubber-stamp proposals which re-imagine Summerhall as an extortionately priced student village with an arts centre tacked on. The Scottish Government, fresh from shamefully overriding the Council over Dundas Street, could find their principles and refuse to intervene. These things could happen because they have happened.
Maybe this will be the point at which the city finally decides the arts matter more than one more block of student accommodation. It has to happen one day, doesn’t it?
Featured Image: AMA (New Town Limited) Consultation Sketch
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