Shrubhill Tramway Workshop to NW, Shrub Place, Leith

Part of a single storey and basement, 8-bay, factory works, irregular-plan complex of horizontally aligned blocks. Tall ground floor, clerestorey, tall chimney stalk. Red brick and red sandstone ashlar with ashlar or brick margins. Ashlar banding to brick work. (Historic Scotland)

Shrubhill Tramway Workshops and Power Station, Dryden Street, power station opened 1898. A tall 8-bay, 1-storey and basement ashlar block, 3 wide single-storey bays, and a single-storey, 4-bay rubble block with round-headed windows and 8 circular windows. All these have roof-ridge ventilators. The complex is dominated by an octagonal brick chimney, with decorated top section on a square masonry base. The power station housed the haulage engines for cable-tramway operations. (RCAHMS)

October 2011: Nominated by Leith Central Community Council. Building was to be incorporated into a housing development, but the development is now on hold. Building is advised as not being wind and water tight. Set to For Investigation

November 2011: External inspection finds the residual buildings of the former tramworks complex retains external walls, but roofs, doors and windows have largely gone. Full planning permission for an urban village developement at the site was refused May 2003 ref: 02/04593/FUL and refused at Appeal July 2004 ref: 03/00077/REF. Full Planning Permission and Listed Building Consent for redevelopment of the site was conditionally granted Aug 2008 and May 2006 ref: 05/03128/FUL & 05/03128/LBC.

10 April 2013: Full Planning Permission and Listed Building Consent for a revised mixed use proposal have been lodged with Edinburgh City Council ref: 13/010701/FUL & 13/01071/LBC. The Design and Access Statement notes the scheme includes the rentention of the listed buildings on the site.

9 October 2013: Frank Ross, economy convenor at Edinburgh City Council, outlines in article in the Edinburgh Evening News (Building Edinburgh's Future) a plan to commission a study of 12 priority sites believed to have potential for short-term transformation of which the former tram works at Shrubhill is one. The article notes the difficulties development projects have in securing financing in the current economic climate. The study is to explore options for public sector intervention to unlock the development potential of the sites, a number of which already have planning permission in place.

17 February 2015: External inspection finds the building remains in much the same condition as seen previously.

25 February 2015: Local planners advise the site is now owned by Places for People Shrubhill and consent for a mixed use development at the complex is being sought ref: 15/00643/FUL & 15/00642/LBC.

1 September 2015: Listed Building Consent for restoration and conversion into flats, as part of a wider residential development of the site, was conditionally approved July 2015 ref: 15/00642/LBC. Edinburgh City Council is minded to grant and application for full Planning Permission for the development subject to legal agreement ref: 15/00643/FUL.

25 February 2019: Local planners note works are underway within the wider site (05/03128/FUL) and commenced in late 2016. The tramworks buildings are expected to form phase 3 of the project, probably after March 2020.

16 October 2020: External inspection finds works appear to be underway to develop the wider site but this structure remains in much the same condition as seen previously. Only steel roof elements remain so building is exposed to the elements and deterioration continues. Rainwater goods are damaged. Vegetation growths visible and blockages causing water ingress. Dampness evident on external walls and wallheads exposed to elements. Windows mostly broken, boarded and deteriorating. Missing door elements, all in needs of repair and maintenance. Secure gates at all boundary entrances. Category of risk changed to moderate. Remains At Risk. 20/04876/LBC - Erection of dwelling blocks inside Tramway Workshops; erection of a new dwelling block in gap site between existing buildings and associated landscape works; associated fabric repairs and alterations to existing buildings. Conditionally granted Feb 21