Urban Change

Written and researched by Benjamin Smith, 2001.

An Investigation into urban change in the Inverleith area of Edinburgh.

Online h2g2 edition

Contents

• Contents
• Index of Figures
• Introduction
• Method
• Presentation of Evidence
  • Development History
  • EQI
  • Land use map
• Analysis
  • Effect on local people
  • Urban Models
  • Transport and Traffic
• Conclusions
• Bibliography

Index of Figures

• Map 1: Location of area.
• Map 2: Updated land use map.
• Table 1: Environmental quality data.
• Chart 1: Environmental quality graph.
• Photograph 1: Modern housing on Eildon Terrace.
• Photograph 2: Older-style housing on Eildon Terrace.
• Photograph 3: Warriston Gardens.
• Photograph 4: 1950s flats.

Introduction

The aim of this project is to investigate the change in an urban area. I investigate how the area has changed between 1896 and 2001, and show how this has affected the residents of the area.

The area chosen is Inverleith Row. This street stretches between the bottom of Brandon Terrace and Ferry Road, and is about 1½ miles from the CBD, and about the same from the shoreline. It cuts through a mainly residential area. At both ends are rows of shops and offices. The south end also used to have some industry. I will be looking at how land use has changed along Inverleith Row and in the area to either side. There have been new housing developments in the area, and the price of some properties has risen substantially. A map showing the area in relation to the rest of the city is included as Map 1.

Method

The main primary source of data for this investigation is a land use survey. A tracing of an 1896 map was updated by visiting the area. The tracing shows how buildings have changed their use, the buildings that have been built and those that have been demolished. The tracing was updated over the whole area. The land use will be categorised into 9 groups: -

• Housing
• Green space -- any open area with greenery¹.
• Offices
• Personal services e.g. hairdresser, tanning studio.
• Catering e.g. pub, café, hotel, B&B.
• Convenience shops e.g. greengrocer.
• Specialist shops e.g. books, florist, pianos².
• Professional services e.g. bank, estate agent, dentist.
• Public buildings/services e.g. church, post office.

A second primary source of data was collected at the same time as the first. It was an Environmental Quality Index (EQI). The EQI is a measurement made at various points in the area to show the quality of the environment and how it affects the residents. EQIs were taken for 15 points within the area. Each point was chosen to be in a different area of housing. Each area was either on a different street or differed in style or age. The EQI of a particular location was assessed by going to the location and completing a form, filling in a score for each of ten factors, which were: -

• Paving & road
• Litter
• Derelict land
• Wirescape
• Advertisements
• Air pollution
• Noise
• Landscape
• Traffic safety
• Building condition

The scoring of each factor was kept consistent over the locations by setting guidelines for the awarding of the scores. Each factor was scored out of 10 and the scores for the 10 factors were then summed to give the EQI for a location.

A score of 10 for a factor showed that area excelled in providing a good environment in that factor. For example, a score of 10 for litter means that there was none in the area. The EQI total can be used to compare locations and to assess how pleasant an area is to live in. The individual factors can be used alone to assess areas for specific qualities. Factors can also be combined to show why one may be high in a particular area, for example a low traffic safety score showing heavy traffic could explain why there are poor scores for noise and air pollution.

(Photographs were taken to provide pictorial evidence of some examples of changes.)

Secondary evidence from other historical maps dating from between 1900 and 1950 was collected from a local library. In addition to this, evidence from books³ about the area was used to find out when buildings were built and altered.

The only problems encountered was a lack of easily available information about the changes since 1970 to the area, but this was overcome by broadening the range of secondary sources used. When collecting primary evidence, the main problem was the lack of clear weather to collect data!

Presentation of Evidence

Development History

In 1896 the area was on the fringe of the city but a main thoroughfare from the city to Trinity and Newhaven. The surrounding area still had a lot of green space. Today the industry in the area has moved away, and most is now located on the shoreline. Offices and shops have spread up from the city, and shops have grown up at the other end.

Between 1896 and 1911, Heriots school purchased the area marked on the map as Bangholm nursery and made it their sports ground. In 1925 the grandstand was built. The houses on Eildon Terrace were built by Miller in 1970; these houses can be seen in photo 1. These houses are built on land that used to be the site of West Warriston House, but this building was demolished. You would be forgiven for thinking that the houses in photo 2 were built in the 19th Century, but they were in fact built later. Warriston Gardens is inter-war housing, built in the 1930s and shown in photo 3. Also on Eildon Terrace are flats built in the 1950s and shown in photo 4. Standard Life applied for planning permission for their offices in 1986, and they were opened in 1990. In 1965 the Botanic Gardens constructed their New Glasshouses. Between 1948 and 1968 the Scottish Daily Mail was published from the wool store at Tanfield.

EQI

The graph and the accompanying table show the EQI data that was collected. The location of each result is shown by the street or particular building it was assessed beside. For a street unless otherwise noted the measurement was taken at the middle of its length. Although, when the point was likely to be affected by the proximity of the main road, I moved further away.

The indices show scores in the range of 62 up to 88. The highest scores were achieved in the newer areas of housing (results 4, 15 and 10). High scores were also obtained in areas of older housing (results 11 and 14). Inverleith Terrace and the housing closer to the Water of Leith also scored highly. As the new housing has been built along their own roads in an estate-like format they tended to score highly for traffic safety. They also had no derelict land. Also further away from the main road they had very little noise or air pollution.

The points on the main road did not score as highly as those further away. It tended to be some of the older modern housing (results 5 and 6) that had poorer building condition.

The best scores for landscape (results 13 and 14) were obtained from locations near to the Botanic Gardens and to the Water of Leith. Result 10 also scored well as it was beside the railway line, the playing fields and some allotments.

Land use map

The included map is dated 1896. The tracing on top of the map, shows the 2001 land uses. The majority of buildings that were residential in 1896 have stayed residential. Changes that have happened to the housing have been subdivision of larger properties into flats and the conversion of a small number of properties to other uses e.g. dentists, hotels. The main change has been the development of modern housing in the area previously occupied by the Warriston nurseries. Another major development has been the building of the Standard Life office complex on a previous industrial site. This can be seen built on brown field land next to the water of Leith.

Analysis

The main change that has happened to the area has been the development of the modern housing. The housing was built in the 1930s and the 1970s. The redevelopment of the land occurred at these times because they were both times of expansion to the city. The nurseries that had previously used the land moved away because the land was now becoming more expensive and there was limited expansion. Therefore moving to cheaper and larger land was advantageous. There was also no need for small nurseries when supermarkets appeared and bought produce on a large scale from large commercial farms, and when produce could be easily transported large distances.

The development of the housing is an example of infilling. Infilling is when gaps in a previously developed area are filled in at a later time. This is a prime example of it as the main streets were laid down in the 1800s while the modern housing replaced the green space much later.

While my area is not within the greenbelt itself, it does contain a lot of green space. Edinburgh as a whole has a high 38% of green space. This is a very high figure for any city, and one would expect to find similar percentages of green space in a smaller survey area, such as mine. My area contains two school playing fields, the Botanic Gardens and vegetation next to the water of Leith. The 1896 map also shows a lot of green space. At that time the playing fields were green space but in use as nurseries. The area behind the housing on Inverleith Place was also a nursery. So although there is still a lot of green space its use has changed and it has been reduced in size by new developments. As the city has grown the demand for housing within the city boundary has increased, and green field sites like these are worth a lot more as housing developments than as nurseries. The reason a lot of green space has remained is the fact that the area is a conservation area and because the organisations owning the green space do not want to and, in the case of the Botanics, cannot sell off their land.

The development by Standard Life of their large office was because of their need to have more office space in the city and because they wanted to have all their offices on one site, although this goal hasn?t been met as the company has grown so much that they are still on split sites. They considered building on the south edge of the city, but decided that a more central location was better because of the proximity of their existing offices and the ease of access by workers living in the main city. The offices couldn?t be built further in towards the centre because of the lack of any free land to build a large development on. The land that the offices are built on is brown field, in that it has been used for industry before. The area also provides a pleasant environment for employees due to the large amount of green space and the Water of Leith. In order to enhance this, the offices were in fact built with a rooftop terrace and garden. The main reason for this development is because it was the best site available to Standard Life.

The environmental index data shows quite similar data across the locations in a number of categories, such as landscape and advertisements. The main differences between the old and modern housing is in the figure for the wirescape. The modern housing of Warriston Gardens has far more telephone cables and TV aerials than the housing along the length of Inverleith Row.

Effect on local people

The development of offices in the area, and offices in the New Town has meant that the area has acquired more ?city? residents with more money to spend in the local restaurants, of which, a new one beside the bridge has only opened recently. This migration of people with more money has meant that house prices have increased with the possibility of some properties having doubled their value over the last decade. Since the area has become so popular there has also been a luxury housing development, which in turn has pushed up prices still further. One example of a high property price is £115,000 as the starting price for a two bedroom flat in a traditional tenement. The result is that some existing residents have to move to other areas in the city or within commuting distance when considering buying a larger property. Other areas in the city have not seen such large increases in property prices. There is also a movement of people out of the area as they downsize their property and use the raised capital to live off (e.g. retiring). Once people moving into the area have bought a house they will also be reluctant to move because of the high prices that they paid. The high prices also stop certain types of people moving into the area that previously would have.

Urban Models

One way to explain the development of this area is to use an urban growth model. Several are available including Burgess? concentric model, Hoyt?s sector model, the Mann model, the multiple nuclei model, and the Whitehand model. The concentric model is possibly the least applicable to Edinburgh, as it was developed based upon Chicago in America where the city grew unconstrained outwards in rings. The sector model can be used to represent some of Edinburgh?s growth as the city did grow outwards in a radial fashion but along roads instead of broad segments. Another model that applies to Edinburgh is the multiple-nuclei model as Edinburgh does encompass what were the business districts of small towns. The Mann model has an east-west division between better housing and poorer housing, but as this is only partially true in Edinburgh this model is not of much use. The model that best shows the general principles of growth in my area is the Whitehand model, which is based on studies of English cities. One feature of interest is the Fringe Belts. In these areas the development has been slower and a mixture of low-density housing and recreational open space has grown. The main periods of growth on this model are post-war (1960-80) and Victorian and Edwardian (1870-1910). This applies to the housing on Inverleith Row and to the modern housing in Warriston. The main reason why the area doesn?t show clear bands is because of the mixing up of building types caused by the open space. This is in fact a particularly good area to apply the model to because it is a transect along a main road.

Transport and Traffic

The area has fairly heavy traffic and a good bus service. There are four bus routes that go along Inverleith Row connecting the City Centre to the north side of the city, including areas such as Granton. The traffic is heavy because the road is a main route to the city centre. Its proximity and good connection to the centre also causes a problem, parking. Parking is an issue in Edinburgh because there is only very limited on street parking in the city centre and very few car parks for the cars coming into the city each day. As these spaces are used up people park further away from the centre, this invariably means that that they instead use areas such as Inverleith. They park on Inverleith Row itself and on the side streets. As parking gets worse the council is increasing parking restrictions. In the past few years the council has introduced private parking wardens, who are showing more of a presence in this area. The latest scheme on the drawing board to restrict parking and traffic is to introduce more permit parking zones and to introduce tolls for entering the city centre. The proposed starting point for the toll zone is at the bridge at the south of my area. As people would now be charged to enter the centre people would try and park outside the toll zone, causing even more parking congestion in my area. Very possibly the council would try and combat this by making much of my area into permit parking. Permit parking can disadvantage residents of an area, as they would have to pay for parking outside their own homes. It is also a very effective method if it is strictly policed.

Conclusions

In the future I think it might be desirable for the area to lower housing prices to bring in a wider variety of people. It?s also likely that there will be more development in the area, or in nearby streets. In the future another development that might happen is more infilling. Although the Botanics can?t sell its land and it?s unlikely that the council will sell its playing fields, it?s still possible that Heriots could sell some of its land. One reason it might do this is the high price that the land would possibly fetch.

This project could be extended. Currently it only examines the changes that have occurred in one area, so an extension could be to compare the development of different areas. These areas could all be approximately the same distance from the city centre or they could be at different distances so that the development of the whole city could be examined and compared to the urban development models.

Bibliography

Information about land use models and methods of investigation came from: -

• The New Wider World by David Waugh.
• Geographical Enquires by Garrett Nagle & Kris Spencer.
• Fieldwork Investigations: Towns & Cities by Sue Warn and Christine Bottomley.
• Higher Geography Textbook.

Green space figures from: -

• The State of Scottish Greenspace, Scottish Wildlife Trust, 1997, and
• The Nature of Scotland by M. Magnusson and G. White.

Maps used were: -

• 1896 ordnance survey map of Inverleith & Canonmills.
• 1979 LRT bus map.
• 2001 LRT bus map.
• 1930s tourist map.
• 1923-24 Bartholomew Directory Map.
• 1934-35 Bartholomew Directory Map.
• 1949-50 Bartholomew Directory Map.
• 1953-54 Bartholomew Directory Map.

Property prices from: -

• ESPC website (http://www.espc.co.uk/).

Historical information about the area was gathered from these books at the Edinburgh Central Library: -

• The Place Names of Edinburgh by Stuart Harris.
• The Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh by John Gifford, Colin McWilliams and David Walker.
• Canonmills and Inverleith by Joyce M Wallace.

---

¹ The map shows a subcategory of green space, allotments. This is to highlight these as separate, for later discussion.
² The area has two piano showrooms.
³ See bibliography.