Linksview House is a ten storey, Grade A listed block of flats in Leith, Edinburgh. It is situated at the north end of the historic, now pedestrianised Leith thoroughfare, Kirkgate, and is the sister block to the more famous Cables Wynd House, known colloquially as the "Banana Flats".[1] It is mostly owned by City of Edinburgh Council.[2]
The block was built in the 'New Brutalism' style.[1]
After World War Two, inspired by similar schemes in France, a building programme was initiated to improve living conditions in Scotland's inner cities.[1]
Linksview House has external access decks. The idea behind these was to replicate the feeling of traditional streets.[1]
The blocks also incorporated modern design features such as lifts and heated flooring.[1]
It has been said that the block combines "international excellence in modernist urban design with an attention to the spirit of place" and "an outstanding synthesis of international modernist architecture with Geddes's 'conservative surgery' principles."[1]
HES
Linksview House was built between 1964 and 1967 to designs by Alison & Hutchison & Partners. Robert Forbes Hutchison was the senior partner, Walter Scott was the partner in charge, and Francis W Tinson was the senior assistant.
The contractor for the scheme was J Smart and Co and the structural engineers were Blyth & Blyth.
The block has private and public access balconies and
The building is a rectangular plan slab block in the New Brutalist style that was current to the late 1950s and 1960s. It contains 95 flats, which are accessed by two centrally located lifts leading to galleried decks on the 2nd, 5th and 8th floors.
It is set on splayed reinforced concrete supports at the ground floor and is characterised by undercrofts and concrete finishing, but primarily by its patterned horizontal elevation that faces in to the Kirkgate precinct acting as a wall which defines its boundary to the east.
It is constructed with an in-situ concrete cross frame with large aggregate pre-cast concrete panel cladding.
Linksview House is "among the best of Scotland's post-war mass urban housing schemes"[3]
The external access decks were seen as a way of recreating the civic spirit of traditional tenemented streets.[3]
The design lays bare the essential materials of a building's construction, namely reinforced concrete.
The block is similar to Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation model housing and other near-contemporary schemes in England.
While Glasgow's housing policies dominated the Scottish debate on housing and slum clearance, the redevelopment in Central Leith was an equally significant achievement by the Edinburgh Burgh Council who in the early 1960s were fully committed to rehousing the city's working classes in high quality schemes but which also addressed the need for high density. It is significant that a private architectural practice led the design, showing the contemporary interest in Brutalist architecture and delivering one of Scotland's most ambitious inner-city developments of its time. The building is a key component of the comprehensive redevelopment of the Kirkgate area of Leith and ties into the precinct housing and its companion slab block, Cables Wynd House (listed at category A - LB52403).
Immediately beneath the building on one side is a large courtyard surrounded by low rise social housing, and on the other is the building's car park.
Background
editAfter the Second World War, housing and health became key priorities of successive governments. This led to significant social reform, such as the establishment of the NHS.[3] Mass social housing for communities was another focus of attention. It was seen as key for health improvement for people to move out of slums to more suitable housing developments. Slum clearance had been a concern for the big cities in Scotland since the middle of the 19th century.[3]
Leith was the focus of a slum clearance programme between the 1950s and 1970s, which saw the near total redevelopment of the Kirkgate, a historic thoroughfare. Linksview House was built during the second phase of the Citadel and Central Leith Redevelopment Area (RDA), approved by the Edinburgh Burgh Council in 1963. The block was completed in 1967.[3]
The 1947 Town and Country Planning Act led to significant national changes in housing and planning policy. Plans like the 1946 Clyde Valley Regional Plan created "New Towns" to ease overcrowding in the cities, especially Glasgow. However, city officials were keen to retain some control,
and identified comprehensive redevelopment areas (CDAs) within their administrative boundaries as an alternative to regional planning. High density mass housing was seen as an innovative solution to overcrowding and slum clearance, which led to the creation of large scale public housing developments like the Red Road Flats in Glasgow.[3]
TO SORT BELWO....
While many of the high rise buildings being erected were provided by contractors in collaboration with local authority architects' departments, by the late 1950s, some of the more architecturally innovative schemes were by architects in private practice. Around this time, the functionalist concepts of the early modernist period of imposed and comprehensive architectural order on society, prevalent in the 1930s and '40s and typified by 'all-flats' schemes, was shifting towards socially inclusive architectural solutions and community planning, and by contrast was exemplified by the new mixed-development scheme. The garden city model was not favoured nor practical in urban areas but neither was the model of high-flats only.
Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation (1947-52) at Marseille, France, is widely recognised as the initial inspiration to this change in philosophy and his large slab block of flats located in a parkland setting, which included shops, leisure and other social amenities as part of the development, was the architectural embodiment of a utopian concept of city living known as the 'ville radieuse' or the vertical city. It proved enormously influential and is often cited as the initial inspiration of the Brutalist architectural style and philosophy, which at Marseille (and at the other Unité schemes found in France and elsewhere) applied a raw concrete aesthetic (béton brut) to maximise the possibilities of new materials and building technologies to achieve its theoretical aims.
Early adopters of the new thinking in Britain were found in London and other large cities such as the housing complexes at the Golden Lane Estate, 1953-63 (listed Grade II*), the Alton West Estate in Roehampton, London, (1955-8 – listed Grade II*) 5 long 10-storey slab blocks of maisonettes in a parkland setting, and Park Hill in Sheffield (1957-60 – listed Grade II*). Park Hill, famously known for its 'streets in the sky' is of importance as the first built manifestation of a widespread theoretical interest in external access decks as a way of building high without the problems of isolation and expense encountered with point blocks. Other expressions of the Unité concept include the Barbican Estate (completed 1963-1982 – listed Grade II), Balfron Tower (1965-7 – listed Grade II), and Trellick Tower (1968-73 – listed Grade II), all in London.
Scotland's cities also responded with ambitious schemes in Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen, all focusing on the ever pressing need for slum-clearance with the help of forward thinking city planners, engineers and housing chiefs, such as Robert Bruce and David Gibson in Glasgow. The Gorbals area of Glasgow, a notorious slum in the south of the city, plagued by overcrowding, saw the erection of multi-storey housing by architects in private practice, including Basil Spence's renowned Hutchesontown C (1961-6 – demolished) scheme and Hutchesontown B in 1958 (altered) by Robert Matthew who was leading Scotland in social housing reform, establishing the Housing Research Unit at the University of Edinburgh in 1959. One of the most distinguished of the tower block schemes in Glasgow was Anniesland Court, Glasgow (1966 – listed category A, LB43034), itself a megastructure with integrated shops.
Like Glasgow, Edinburgh had a slum problem but unlike Glasgow, it didn't have the problem with access to land. Private architects continued to play a role and at Leith a competition was held for the comprehensive redevelopment at Leith Fort, by Shaw-Stewart, Baikie & Perry (1957-66 – now demolished) which included high-rise point blocks with a combination of courtyard houses and a deck access block. The monumentality of many of these schemes is characteristic of Scottish mass-housing developments with Park Hill the only one in England approaching the same scale. With the support of the enthusiastic Edinburgh housing chair, Pat Rogan, the city's busiest period was during the 1960s with a surge of new schemes were approved and begun across the city. By 1965 Edinburgh had finally caught up with Glasgow in terms of its per capita rate of building high flats with around new 28 schemes built as part of this building boom (Glendinning and Muthesius, 1994).
In this wider context, Linksview House is considered an important example in Scotland of post-war multi-storey block of flats. Linksview House has not been largely altered since it was first built and as many multi-storey schemes have been demolished in the city and across Scotland, it is understood to be an important surviving example of its type.
Architectural or Historic Interest
Interior
The treatment of the interior communal spaces is typically sparse and functional with in situ concrete flooring, ceramic tiling to lift areas for example. Individual flat interiors were not seen and have not been taken into account as part of this assessment.
Plan form
The orientation of the building on a north-south axis was the recommended arrangement for high flats at this date, with preference given to this alignment to allow for maximum light penetration to the houses.
Lifts were expensive and in tall point blocks were notoriously slow, therefore based on contemporary building theory, a long plan was chosen so that more houses per floor could be accommodated.
Early deck access flats (of the interwar and early post-war period) were known to have problems with maintaining privacy and reducing noise due to constant foot traffic. The plan set out by the architects at Linksview House has neatly eradicated this inconvenience by setting out the 3 decks at the 2nd, 5th and 8th floors only with a repetitive series of 3 main entrance doors entering the flat at deck level (with no bedrooms set next to the deck) as well as accessing the flats immediately above and below. For convenience a pram store and storage is set next to each set of 3 doors.
Technological excellence or innovation, material or design quality
Linksview House is a good example of Brutalist architecture in Scotland and uses concrete for both aesthetic and practical ends. In its construction, Linksview House uses a concrete cross wall method which meant that balconies could be recessed within the contour of the building and allowed for a greater variety in architectural pattern for setting out the elevation. As at the Unité d'Habitation, the aesthetic use of repetitive pattern is used at Linksview House to its maximum effect, especially in such a monumental elevation.
The early 1960s was the new age of environmental control and designer-architects, like Alison & Hutchison & Partners were able to incorporate the latest technology to provide convenience, comfort and economy in large housing schemes.
Linksview House is up to date in providing the latest conveniences for mass living which include the placement of bathrooms at the centre of the block because of innovations in ventilation, the extensive use of underfloor heating and a modern refuse shoot system.
Alison & Hutchison & Partners of Edinburgh worked extensively in Central Scotland and the Borders between 1958 and the early 1970s, almost entirely in the public sector and were early adopters of the emerging Brutalist aesthetic. They were responsible for a large proportion of housing redevelopment in Central Leith, including the point blocks in Couper Street (1961-5). Their principal works include the Grangepans redevelopment of Bo'ness, 1958-9, Paisley College of Technology, 1953-63, Woodcroft Telephone Exchange 1958-64 (previously listed at category C - demolished), Napier College, Merchiston Campus, Edinburgh (1964-1); Lynebank Hospital (1965 – listed category B LB52192); St Andrew's R C Church, Livingston (1969-70 – listed category B, LB52188) and St Gabriel's Church, Prestonpans (1965- listed category B, LB52187)
The partner in charge of the Linksview House, Harry Horace MacDonald (1916-2015, ARIBA, FRIBA) was senior architect with Burnet, Tait & Partners in 1952, having worked with the renowned industrial architect James Shearer on a number of hydro-electric schemes in the 1940s. He became a full partner with Alison & Hutchison in 1961.
Setting
Linksview House is situated within a predominantly residential area, surrounded by traditional tenements to the south and west, and contemporary courtyard housing including its companion Cables Wynd House block of flats, to west and north, which have been designed as a late modernist architectural set piece in urban planning terms. The immediate setting is directly reflective of the wider urban area with a multiplicity of commercial and industrial uses co-existing within a predominantly residential area, characterised by modern interventions into surviving elements of the 18th and 19th century streetscape.
The building is a key component of the comprehensive redevelopment of the Kirkgate area of Leith and ties into the precinct housing and its companion slab block, Cables Wynd House.
Regional variations
There are no known regional variations.
Close Historical Associtations
There are no known associations with a person or event of national importance at present (2016).
The tall flats at the Kirkgate have gained popular interest after its neighbouring block, Cables Wynd House, featured in Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. The flats were the childhood home of the character Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson in Welsh's internationally acclaimed novel. The location has been frequently chosen as a subject for architectural photography and filming. In 2007, the location was used during filming of the television drama 'Wedding Belles', also by Irvine Welsh.
In the 21st century, Linksview House is recognised for its contribution to Edinburgh and Scottish culture and its sense of identity as it is regarded both as a positive and negative architectural icon, representing a period of great social reconstruction in Scotland's cities.
An eleven-storey slab block with balconies built as public housing by Edinburgh Borough Council as part of the redevelopment of the central area of Leith. The block contains 98 dwellings. Construction was approved by committee in 1964. The contractor for the development was J. Smart & Co. (Contractors) Ltd.[4]
Dawn McDowell, Historic Environment Scotland's Deputy Head of Listing, said: "Scotland is renowned for its rich architectural heritage. "While our palaces, abbeys and castles are a key part of this, they are only a fraction of our diverse historic environment which ranges from industrial buildings to the homes we live in. "Cables Wynd House and Linksview House were innovative, ground-breaking designs at the time when they were built and offered a new vision for social housing and for those who lived in them. "A key aim of listing is to recognise the special architectural importance of these buildings as well as celebrating and sharing their wider social and cultural role." Residents of Cables Wynd House and Linksview House will receive a letter from Historic Environment Scotland about the consultation. Residents and owners can also go to an informal drop-in meeting on 6 December at Leith Library, on Ferry Road from 16:00 to 19:00.[2]
Opposite the block is an Untitled Mural by artist Tim Chalk.[5]
Crimes
editThe block has been the scene of several violent crimes, including the fatal stabbing of a man by a woman he had just raped<BBC021127/> and a life-endangering knife attack in 2003.[6]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f "Edinburgh's 'Banana Flats' awarded Category A listing". BBC News. BBC. 1 February 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
- ^ a b "'Banana flats' in listed building plan for Leith". BBC News. BBC. 11 November 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f Cite error: The named reference
HESwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Edinburgh, Leith, Tolbooth Wynd, Linksview House". Canmore. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Councilwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Woman jailed for grandfather murder in Leith". BBC News. BBC. 23 June 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
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