Edinburgh Council's Planning Committee Gives Six Month Reprieve
I received the following from Councillor Bob Cairns. Doyle's old childhood residence has a six month reprieve. My thanks to everyone who may have written, Graham Connor for bringing it to our attention in the first place and Edinburgh Council's Planning Committee for taking this stance..
"You will be pleased to hear that the City of Edinburgh Council's Planning Committee has agreed to serve a Building Preservation Notice on this property. This means that the building is protected against demolition for six months, during which period Historic Scotland (a Government agency) has to decide whether to add the building to the statutory list of buildings of architectural or historic interest.
You will be aware that the building was taken off the list in 1997. I would like to stress that the City council objected to the removal of the building at the time. If it is listed, there is a very strong reason to refuse consent for the restaurant. The planning application by McDonalds will not be considered until Historic Scotland make their decision. I very much hope that the building is relisted and that those who object to the demolition can now come up with some alternative proposal for the building."
Councillor Bob Cairns
The rest of this page details the house and the problem though email objections are no longer required.
Porlock
Conan Doyle House threatened with demolition
The house in which Arthur Conan Doyle lived while he attended school in Edinburgh in the 1860s is threatened with demolition to make way for 100-seat McDonalds hamburger bar. Liberton Bank House is the oldest surviving building connected with Conan Doyle. It forms part of what was once the rural village of Nether Liberton on the south side of Edinburgh, but unfortunately it is adjacent to a major shopping mall which now wants to expand into the last corner of its site - the corner still occupied by Liberton Bank House.
The City's Planning Committee will meet soon to decide whether the application by McDonalds should go ahead. There is a strong local campaign to save Liberton Bank House and have it restored as part of a revised development scheme. You can help by sending an e-mail to the Chairman of the Planning Committee objecting to the loss of this charming and historic building. It is important that we get as many messages of support as possible - please do write today, and pass this message on to other Conan Doyle enthusiasts!
Conan Doyle in Edinburgh
Arthur Conan Doyle was born and brought up in Edinburgh, and his early Edinburgh experiences greatly influenced his writing. It is well known that his most famous fictional character, the detective Sherlock Holmes, was based to a large extent on Dr Joseph Bell, the charismatic lecturer in clinical surgery at Royal Infirmary while Conan Doyle was a student in Edinburgh's medical school.
The Catholic Doyle family were not well off: they lived in a succession of cheap rented accommodation and struggled to make ends meet. Arthur's father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was a talented artist, but was also an alcoholic and severe depressive who was eventually confined in a psychiatric institution. Arthur's mother was concerned to keep him away from his father's influence, and so he was sent to school on the other side of the city from their home, which was then in Portobello, in north Edinburgh. He attended Newington Academy and lived further out at Liberton Bank House, which belonged to a family friend, Mary Burton, who was able to provide him with a more secure environment. Mary was the sister of the prominent lawyer and historian, John Hill Burton, whose son William (subsequently a professor of engineering) became one of Arthur's earliest and closest friends. She was also god mother to one of Arthur's sisters, Caroline (`Lottie'), born in 1866. She acquired Liberton Bank in 1844 and lived there until her death in 1898.
Arthur went on to attend Catholic boarding schools in England before returning to Edinburgh to study medicine. It was while still a student that his first short stories were published, and although he subsequent worked in England, his Edinburgh experiences continued to appear in his writings. Much new information about Conan Doyle's Edinburgh period was revealed by the literary critic and historian Owen Dudley Edwards in his influential 1983 biography The Quest for Sherlock Holmes, and he associates material in two stories as directly relating to Conan Doyle's time at Liberton Bank House. Owen Dudley Edwards, who lives only half a mile away, is helping the Craigmillar Park Association in its campaign to save the house.
Conan Doyle's work is known and loved around the world, but Edinburgh has been slow to acknowledge him. His birthplace, in Picardy Place in central Edinburgh, has been demolished. A statue representing Sherlock Holmes was erected near the site in 1991, but this and a plaque marking the house where he stayed while at university, are all that a visitor to Edinburgh will see. The house in Portobello has also been demolished.
Liberton Bank House
Below are a location map and two photographs of Liberton Bank House, taken by its last private owner, Mrs Betty Herrald. (click on either picture for a larger version)
The house was built in the late 18th century (perhaps about 1780) and it is very much in the local Scottish tradition of small stone-built domestic housing. It is a single storey building with an attic floor of four rooms, each with a fireplace and lit by a window in one of the end gables. (The dormer windows in the roof are modern additions.) An extension under the north gable housed the wash house and the cow byre. The house was surrounded by a walled garden, and a high wall at the rear separates the house from Liberton Road, which is at a higher level. Access to Liberton Bank House is by a track leading from the corner of Liberton Road and Gilmerton Road (and known locally as Good's Corner after Alexander Good, a wright or joiner, who worked there from about 1840).
The Protection of `Listed' Buildings
Scotland's early building are protected by a government agency called Historic Scotland, which maintains a detailed listings of `Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest', and since 1970 such `listed' buildings have been given legal protection to ensure their preservation. The list is principally of buildings constructed before 1840, but includes later buildings that are by well known architects, or associated with famous people or events, or for a number of other reasons. They are classified into three grades: A, B, and C, of which A-listed buildings are the most important. Liberton Bank House was B-listed in the statutory listof 1970, and this category is described as comprising `buildings of regional or more than local importance, or major examples of some particular period, style, or building type which may have been altered'.
The Edinburgh list was revised by Historic Scotland in 1997 in order to include new properties and to add descriptive and historical material. However, it has only now been appreciated that the opportunity was taken at that time to remove Liberton Bank House from the protected list. The reason given by Historic Scotland to the City Planning Department in January 1997 was that `although of 18th century origin, [thehouse] retains little of its 18th century character, whilst its context is now far from sympathetic'. Without statutory protection, the house will inevitable be demolished because it stands in the way of the proposed McDonalds. But because a building cannot normally be listed (or in this case, re-listed) when a planning application is pending, the City will have to refuse McDonalds' application first.
We do not believe that the decision to de-list Liberton Bank House was well founded. The building clearly still has the same 18th century character that it had when it was placed on the statutory list in 1970 - although it has been altered, we know that the new dormer windows were added before 1970. If it was B-listed then, it should still be B-listed now.
The 1970 listing was based purely on architectural merit, because its additional status as a building connected with a famous individual was not appreciated before Owen Dudley Edwards published his biography of Conan Doyle in 1983. Even so, this new information was not known to the Inspectors at Historic Scotland or to the City Planners in 1997 when the decision was taken to de-list the house. Catherine Cruft, who compiled the original list in the late 1950s, and who until recently was the head of the National Monument Record for Scotland, has confirmed that a known association with Conan Doyle would have been a significant factor in assessing the listed protection.
The Threat from Expansion of the Shopping Mall
Sadly, the real reason for the de-listing is contained in Historic Scotland's comment that the house's `context is now far from sympathetic'. In the 1980s a large shopping mall and car park was built on the field next to Nether Liberton. Called the Cameron Toll Centre, this is build around a large Savacentre store (part of the Sainsbury retail group), it is constructed on piles over the Braid Burn stream that powers the old mill in Nether Liberton. It has progressively expanded over the site. First a gas filling station was added, and then the car park was extended in 1996 at the time when flood protection measures at the Braid Burn were improved. The car park now comes to within a few feet of the house. It might be argued that this extension `adversely affected the setting of a listed building', and for this reason the City should not have permitted it. The removal of the listing one year later might be seen as a way of resolving this conflict.
How can you Help?
We believe that by impressing on the City the importance of this newly appreciated Conan Doyle connection, we may be able to stop the wanton destruction of this fine old house which was of such significance to the impressionable young writer. As someone who has a particular interest in Conan Doyle and his work, you can make a formal objection to the planning application submitted by McDonalds. To do this, please e-mail aletter to Councillor Robert Cairns (robert.cairns@cityedin.demon.co.uk), the Chairman of the City of Edinburgh Planning Committee, heading your letter `Application for McDonalds Restaurant, 1 Gilmerton Road (Planning Ref. 99/02246/FUL) - Revision'. It is important that you use the word `object' or `objection' in your letter. For example, you might write `I wish to register my objection to this application .... ' or `I wish to object most strongly to this planning application for the following reasons...'
You should state why you have objected. You might, for example, want to refer to the importance for Edinburgh citizens and visitors alike of preserving places associated with significant Scottish figures. You are perhaps dismayed to discover that the City apparently has so little regard to record and preserve a site connected with one of its internationally famous sons. You may feel that the B-listing should have been retained in 1997, and indeed reinforced because of the Conan Doyle connection. Similarly, you may think that the City should not have allowed developments that were detrimental to the setting of a listed building to take place in 1996, and that this situation cannot be used to justify the destruction of the house now.
You could point out that visitor surveys have shown that an interest in history plays a major part in persuading tourists to visit Scotland. Say that it has been, or will be, important to you to be able to experience Conan Doyle's world personally, and express the hope that the City will be an enlightened and responsible custodian in looking after historical or literary sites for future generations.
To give extra weight to your objection, please state if there are particular reasons for your interest in Conan Doyle. Do you for example teach English or history - if so, state where. Do you have a medical background, perhaps with an Edinburgh connection? Do you already know Edinburgh as a visitor, or do you plan to visit? Presumably when you do visit next, you will expect to be able to see Liberton Bank House, whose association with Doyle was discussed as long as 16 years ago by Edinburgh University's prominent historian, Owen Dudley Edwards - you will not expect that the City has allowed it be demolished.
Because the City Planning Department is not used to receiving objections by e-mail, you should ensure that you also provide a postal address. It would also be a great help to us if you could send a copy of your e-mail to Merrilie Cameron, Secretary of the Craigmillar Park Association (merrilie@cameronid.freeserve.co.uk).
Thank you for your help, and look out for further news!
Graham Connor
gconnor@cc.umanitoba.ca
Updated: December 15, 2002
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