‘Baffling’ decision to award Castle Terrace car park listed building status upheld by Scottish Government

Owners of the car park NCP had appealed the decision by Historic Environment Scotland

Castle Terrace Car Park was awarded listed building status by Historic Environment Scotland

Castle Terrace car park will remain a listed building after its owners NCP lost an appeal to overturn the decision to list the 1960s building.

In October last year, Historic Environment Scotland (HES) awarded the car park Category B listed status, giving it protection from development and putting it on par with the Balmoral Hotel and the tenements of Cockburn Street.

At the time, the decision was labelled “baffling” by critics who argued the car park was a throwback to a car-first era and was an eyesore rather than an architectural marvel.

The car park is understood to be the first multi-storey car park in the country when it opened in 1964, but the 750-bay facility has become associated with anti-social behaviour.

Owners NCP had appealed the decision to list the building on the basis that there were questions around whether it was the earliest post-war car park in Scotland, that it was “far from a sensitive response to its historic setting”, and asked for the building to be downgraded to the less stringent Category C.

In their appeal letter written by Montagu Evans on behalf of NCP, the owners stated: “It is very challenging, in objective terms, to describe the completed car park as a ‘sensitive response to the historic setting’.

“The very decision to place a car park so close to Edinburgh Castle was a reflection of post-war urban planning concepts which privileged the car over other considerations such as visual amenity and the preservation of open spaces.”

However, HES said the design was “uncommon” in its high sensitivity to its setting and represented an example of “early conservation thinking”.

In their appeal response, they argued: “The Car Park and its city centre setting contributes to our understanding of the post-war planning debates in Edinburgh.

“These sought to balance the demands of increasing private car ownership with the retention of historic character and the desire to encourage use of the city centre over out of town shopping centres.”

The Scottish Government reporter, Claire Milne, said the social historical interest of the building and its design meant it met the criteria for being listed.

In her decision notice she wrote: “In my view, Castle Terrace Car Park stands out from most of those I have been referred to due to its elongated plan form and semi-circular ends.

“Although it is a large concrete structure, I do not consider it overly dominant or visually unattractive.

I” conclude that Castle Terrace Car Park is of special architectural and historic interest as its design was both innovative and unusual for a building type of this period and in response to its historic setting, its rarity is represented as the first modern purpose-built multi-storey car park in Scotland, and its location and design contributes to our understanding of the particular planning context of the time.

“I find therefore that it can be considered both innovative and unusual in its design approach, pre-dating any other car park of its type built in Britain.”