"Inches make champions"
Inverleith Terrace
Inverleith Terrace
These are images of our completed project at Inverleith Terrace in Edinburgh for private clients and architect Wil Tunnell.
We first worked with Wil Tunnel when he was in the employ of Richard Murphy Architects completing two projects with him there in the mid 90's, One was an internal refurbishment of a New Town property providing a very contemporary bedroom with ensuite facilities where we also built most of the furniture including the bed. The second was our project at Nethercraigwell (which can be found amongst the completed projects on this web site) a much more ambitious scheme which involved taking off an existing roof and adding an extra floor.
Since then Wil has established his own practice and Inverleith Terrace is the fourth project we have completed for him. Amongst them is St. Bernards Row also to be found on this web site and a particular favourite of ours overlooked for due recognition by his contemporaries.
The project here at Inverleith Terrace is fairly simple in construction and design terms but achieving the fairly simple and making it work well is no small skill in itself.
It is quite common amongst Edinburgh properties - even quite modest properties - for them to contain a servant's apartment and for it to sit above the kitchen or utility area of the house, accessed by an independent and usually quite narrow stair. When you see these discreet little flatlets that were often occupied by young girls put into service by their own disadvantaged families its hard not to wonder about the secret and perhaps unwelcome liaisons that must have occurred there; "amours ancillaires" as the French like to call it.
It was this part of the house at Inverleith Terrace that Wil Tunnel had painstakingly redesigned. The room was to have a multi function but primarily it was to be the office come study of the Lawyer whose house it was. The house itself is quite a large sandstone built and imposing property with many grand rooms so it was high praise when our client told us of the completed project that it was her favourite room.
The room was to the rear of the house adjacent to Edinburgh's Botanic Gardens and commands views over much of the Edinburgh Cityscape As is the case with so many Georgian and Victorian buildings the focus of the house was to the front (unless you were one of the servants) as a result the room had previously ignored the wonderful landscape locked behind its windowless south facing wall.
The major part of this scheme was to cut a new balcony into this wall and by providing bespoke folding sliding glazed screens custom built in our workshops to give forever more 100% access to the stunning views. Although thanks to the rich canopy of botanical vegetation the views are very much a seasonal experience depending on what you want to see.
Internally the original stair was ripped out; it was very narrow and steep with a treacherous turn at the bottom and had in the past been the scene of numerous near misses and accidents alike. The pitch was altered as much as could be and the new stair has wider steps. It is fully lined with oak treads and risers again manufactured in our workshops to match the new flooring both upstairs and down and a very light steel handrail completes the work here.
Within the room itself Inscape have constructed along the East wall a range of desking and storage units designed by the architects to contain all the modern equipment and files necessary for a functioning office.
A large floor to ceiling open shelved storage unit separates the room from the stair and cleverly conceals a small wash hand basin which combined with a very contemporary bed settee gives the study its alternative use as a guest room.
At the ground level beneath the new study a neglected but important and very functional utilty area comprising a boiler room, a small WC, a Pantry, another smaller walk in cupboard and a larger utility space containing sink, washing machine, dryer, and freezer was also fully renovated and rationalised to give maximum use.
News
Inverleith Terrace - 20/06/2006
Inverleith Terrace - 15/04/2006
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