WHEN IT'S A BIGGER HOLE
An application to partially knock down a Category A-listed wall and create a single raised car parking space in the back garden behind 20A Drummond Place has been refused (Ref. 15/02907/FUL and LBC).
The garden in question is the one pictured below, beyond the garden used by the Cumberland bar. A similar set of steps currently leads up from it to street level.
The proposal envisaged relocating a lamppost and banging a 9ft 4in hole through the sandstone boundary accessing South East Cumberland Street Lane.
A passage in the statement supporting the application reads:
The proposed single parking bay involves minimal disruption to the historic arrangement. The solidity of the rear boundary wall will be retained through the installation of appropriate vertically lined dark painted timber gates in a minimal vehicular opening. The new gates will include an integral pedestrian access gate therefore doing away with the need to provide an additional opening in the stone wall.
The property was built in 1814. The detail below is from Kirkwood & Son's Plan and Elevation of the New Town of Edinburgh and dates from 1819.
Officials were not persuaded by the proposal. Not even the plan’s ingenious means of avoiding an additional opening (by including it within a bigger additional opening) could sway them.
They said a double parking space which already accesses the lane elsewhere does not represent a precedent. (In fact there is no such thing as precedent in planning applications, each case being decided on its own merits.)
The proposals would, they continued, ‘drastically alter the pattern of garden spaces which form part of the original New Town layout and … an integral part of this rear mews lane within the Edinburgh World Heritage Site and the New Town Conservation Area'.
They did not feel a timber gate, however visually solid, would adequately compensate for the removal of the wall’s original fabric, which they found to be in good condition.
In conclusion, they advised that the proposed development would have an adverse impact on the New Town Conservation Area and the setting of the listed building.
Surprisingly, perhaps, there appear to have been only two letters of objection. Does this mean neighbours secretly nurse desires for off-street car parking spaces and helicopter pads of their own?
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NewTownCleanStreets @NTCleanStreets
@theSpurtle Why no objections? because no signs up and perhaps only neighbours in Drummond Place notified?
NewTownCleanStreets @NTCleanStreets
@theSpurtle Funnily enough I too was taking photos of that spot today. Any idea why the drainpipes here run upwards?!
@NTCleanStreets No idea whatsoever. Seem to fly in the face of common sense. Like Japanese bidets.
NewTownCleanStreets @NTCleanStreets
@theSpurtle perhaps this is an area of expertise of @NewTownFlaneur ...
Broughton Spurtle @theSpurtle
@NTCleanStreets @NewTownFlaneur Respectfully, ha ha ha ha ha.
@theSpurtle @NTCleanStreets doesn’t look like anything above it drains in. Maybe it’s used to vent hot air from a tumble dryer or extractor?
@neilinglis @theSpurtle correct, the cast iron gutter at roof level drains into the 1 on the right. Usually the other 1 is for loos (which >
NewTownCleanStreets @NTCleanStreets
@neilinglis @theSpurtle >need it to be open at top. No loos ABOVE the up-angled ones. I did think some sort of gas. Hopefully'll find expert
NewTownCleanStreets @NTCleanStreets
@neilinglis @theSpurtle also you would normally just vent extractor / dryer etc to outside wall, not into a sewer.
@NTCleanStreets @theSpurtle it’d vent up above gutter instead of straight out so maybe someone being respectful of neighbours? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
By e-email: Dear SNIPEF, You are our local experts. Can any of your members unravel this plumbing conundrum?
@NTCleanStreets @theSpurtle Most likely an anti-syphon arrangement to stop the trap being sucked out by force of water down steep outlet.
@Protonmale @theSpurtle Ooh, could you draw us a diagram?
@NTCleanStreets @theSpurtle Ask and you shall receive. Apologies for lack of artistic merit.
@NTCleanStreets @theSpurtle Ask and you shall receive. Apologies for lack of artistic merit.
