Letter: Old building at Dewar Place should be completely demolished

I refer to your Lost Edinburgh article concerning the proposed rebuilding at Dewar Place.

The former electricity hub at Dewar Place. Picture: TSPL

I was born in 99 Morrison Street and brought up at No.20 where we had a beautiful view over a lake which was in fact the old basin of the Union Canal before Lothian House and the Regal Cinema was built.

Our playground centred on the Chuckie Pend and a good time out in our territory was down Lothian Road to see the trains in the Caley Station and play the penny machines in the station concourse and back via Rutland Street, Rutland Square, along Canning Street, to the Rutland Cinema and back up Dewar Place to Morrison Street.

Though the electricity building was comparatively new, I always remember it as being the most dismal and depressing building in the area, possibly because its main purpose was to house machinery rather than people.

As it stands, this hybrid proposal is a monstrosity which does nothing for either the old or the new building and I would therefore advocate the complete demolition of the old building which would allow the architect more scope in their design and perhaps the recovered sandstone could be incorporated into a modern entranceway which would be a memento of the old building.

Ramsay MacKay

Senior Project Manager

Post Office Estates Division (Retired)

Edinburgh

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