Architect's bid to save 19th century electric car factory

Respected Edinburgh architect Malcolm Fraser, has spoken out against his previous employers' plans to demolish the historic and listed Maldevic electric car factory in Granton to make way for new houses.

Joint developers the Burrell Company and council owned EDI plan to retain the plant's office block, but demolish the main factory building. They originally worked with Malcolm Fraser to come up with a plan for the development which preserved the factory and converted it into work and living units.

Now Fraser, who has worked on projects such as the Scottish Poetry Library, the Scottish Storytelling Centre and the HBOS headquarters on the Mound, has said he would like to work with a specialist developer to retain and convert the historic factory for modern use.

He says that the last thing that Edinburgh needs is another cleared "wasteland" site like those at the Waterfront.

Commenting on the Urban Realm website, Fraser said that Scottish planning laws needed to be addressed to prevent these demolitions from happening.

"I'm distressed. I understand that the housing proposed in these listed buildings is "not economically viable". But what housing proposal is viable, these recessive days? How does this then make it okay to knock down a listed building? Or is it the case that, in a recession, any listed building can be sent for landfill? If this is the way that legislation is framed in Scotland, it needs changed."

He also points out that developers must pay VAT on restored and converted buildings, while new buildings are VAT free. He says that he has lobbied Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown directly about the way this discourages restoration of such sites to productive use.

History

The Madelvic plant certainly has an unusual history.

The car factory opened in 1898, and is thought to be the oldest purpose-built car factory in the UK. The first vehicle built there was an electric powered car driven by a fifth wheel under the vehicle, but it proved both slow and unpopular.

After improving their design, the company was awarded a contract for carrying mail between the General Post Office in Edinburgh and Leith. They built at least three electric vans for the purpose, the first motor vans used by the postal service in Scotland, but the company failed after only a couple of years.

Fraser, who was the inaugural Deputy-Chair of Architecture and Design Scotland says that he would like to see an updated version of the traditional Edinburgh "colonies," without the need for lots of parking space, because the trams will stop nearby. The trams, of course, will also run on electricity.

What do you think of the plans? Should the factory be retained? Have your say in the comments below.