Colonies inspire housing appeal

The developments were geared towards working class families

Campaigners have called on developers to learn from their Victorian predecessors when tackling Edinburgh's lack of affordable housing.

The Edinburgh Colonies properties, which were built in the 19th Century, are tightly-packed streets of one and two-bedroom homes.

The model was used in seven separate areas of the city.

Campaigners said that modern colonies would be a cost effective, high density answer to the city's housing needs.

The Edinburgh Colonies were built by the Victorians as an alternative to the traditional Scottish tenement.

One of the great advantages of colony housing is that you have your own private garden and own main door Richard Louden Simpson and Marwick Solicitors

The homes were designed to provide working class families with their own garden and front door.

Richard Loudon, of Simpson and Marwick Solicitors, said: "One of the great advantages of colony housing is that you have your own private garden and own main door.

"Over the last 20 years they have sold exceptionally well and it's a very good stepping stone for people that wanted to move on to bigger family properties later in life."

Gavin Corbett, of the Scottish Green Party, has challenged developers and planners to look to the past for an answer to many of the social problems facing Edinburgh today.

He said: "In Edinburgh recently we have had a whole huge debate about school closures and green councillors were pointing out that fundamentally it wasn't about education policy but rather that families are having to leave the city to access affordable housing.

"But here in Edinburgh we have an historic solution to that with colony housing."

Residents have their own garden and front door

Sheila Gilmore, former Edinburgh City Council housing leader, said the idea was to build new colonies on brownfield sites.

She said: "One of the really important things about this type of housing which appeals to people is that they have their own front door, don't share a stair with anyone and all the issues that come with that."

The award-winning Edinburgh architect, Richard Murphy, designed the successful Dublin Colonies development in Edinburgh's New Town.

It uses some elements of the traditional colonies, such as external staircases.

He said: "They do give you the illusion of having a house, even though you actually have a flat and that's attractive I think to a lot of people.

"In terms of density, I have never done the calculation, but my suspicion is that they're quite a lot less dense than a traditional four or five-storey tenement.

"And in terms of cost, you've got to have roads on both sides of a traditional row of colonies and that would probably make the cost of them prohibitive today."