Former Tynecastle High School

Its location presented a complex set of challenges. The site sits between North British Distillery, Tynecastle Stadium and the elevated Western Approach Road, bringing constraints around noise, air quality, safety and daylight. Previous consideration of residential development had demonstrated the difficulty of finding a viable use that could respond successfully to these conditions and secure the future of the listed building.

Purpose-built student accommodation offered an opportunity to do both.

At the heart of the redevelopment is the careful restoration and adaptation of the original school building, now known as Fern House.

Its cellular layout lent itself naturally to student accommodation, allowing the building to be converted without extensive alteration to its historic fabric. Key architectural features and spaces have been retained and restored, including the main stair and its intricate glazed cupola. Contemporary interventions give the building a viable long-term use.

Completed in August 2025, this first phase brought the historic school back into use 15 years after it closed.

But the project was always about more than the restoration of a single building.

The completion of the new-build accommodation and external spaces creates a unified development across the site.

Rather than competing with the historic school, the new buildings respond to its scale and distinctive courtyard form. The arrangement creates a series of sheltered external spaces and an important buffer to the neighbouring distillery and Western Approach Road.

The relationship between old and new is central to the design. The listed school remains the defining presence on McLeod Street, while the contemporary buildings establish a new architectural layer to the rear on a brownfield site that had been largely inaccessible.

Together, the restored school and new-build elements provide 473 student bedrooms, alongside generous student amenity space.

Landscaping has been fundamental to transforming the character of the site.

What was previously a predominantly hard, urban environment has been reshaped around collegiate-style courtyards. Introducing planting and biodiversity has provided attractive outdoor spaces for students to socialise and relax.

The courtyard also re-establishes an important part of the historic character of the school. Removing later additions opened up the centre of the site and allowed a clearer relationship to be created between the retained historic building, new accommodation and landscape.

Further benefits include a community garden and dedicated charity space currently under development.

The balance of buildings and green space creates a very different environment from the enclosed, predominantly hard-surfaced former school site.

Reuse has been central to the sustainability strategy from the outset. Retaining and adapting the most significant historic fabric secures a new future for a building which might otherwise have continued to deteriorate. In addition, the wider scheme introduces low-carbon, fossil-fuel free technologies and green roofs for the low roofs of the new build phase.

The McLeod Street development is also designed as a car-free environment, prioritising walking, cycling and public transport, with cycle parking supporting active travel. Its location gives students access to Edinburgh's universities as well as the surrounding neighbourhoods of Gorgie and Dalry.

With completion of the new buildings and courtyard in 2026, the redevelopment brings the entire former Tynecastle High School site back into productive use.

What was once a deteriorating and highly constrained site has become a new student community, centred around a restored Edinburgh landmark. The project demonstrates how careful adaptation, contemporary architecture and landscape design can work together to preserve the character of a historic building while giving it a viable future.

The result is not simply a refurbished school alongside new accommodation, but a coherent new place in which heritage has informed the character and identity of the whole development.