A few metres from Edinburgh's Royal Mile, down a narrow steep alleyway, are the ruins of a four storey sixteenth century house. Only the walls of the lower two storeys survive together with an incomplete turnpike stair.

Our project was originally to place a shop in the lower two floors and to make a new construction of a cafe on the upper two floors. Our intention is to preserve the ruinous nature of the original by constructing a new steel structure inside the building which then supports all the new external constructions. Chiefly these are a double tier of sliding/folding gallery windows (a reference to an Old Town precedent) and a mono-pitch slate roof and roof light. The turnpike stair will be repaired as necessary and the cafe will be organised around a double height space expressed externally by planar glazing glazed directly between the new roof structure and the ruinous silhouette of the existing building below.

The Cockburn Conservation Trust has since taken over the scheme for their own offices.

Architects Richard Murphy, Adrian Boot
Quantity Surveyor Morham & Brotchie
Construction Cost N/A
Client  Was Classical House Ltd Now: Cockburn Conservation Trust
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