Historic Environment Scotland has recognised Leith’s iconic Cables Wynd House (aka the ‘Banana Flats’) and neighbouring Linksview House at Category A, as IHBC Affiliate Dawn McDowell, Deputy Head of Designations at Historic Environment Scotland, describes them as ‘amongst the best examples’ of their type while they become ‘the 50th and 51st buildings built after the Second World War to be recognised with listing at Category A’.
The move follows a consultation with residents and members of the public and means the buildings are considered of ‘national or international’ importance.
The flats have been an integral, and instantly recognisable feature of the Leith skyline since they were constructed in the early 1960s, and have entered into popular culture thanks to fictional character Simon ‘Sick Boy’ Williamson residing in the flats in local author Irvine Welsh’s novel Trainspotting.
Dawn McDowell, Deputy Head of Designations at Historic Environment Scotland, said: ‘In the early 1960s a new, higher quality, and more holistic approach to housing schemes was being pioneered, inspired by housing schemes in France – which aimed to create not just houses but communities. Cables Wynd House and Linksview are amongst the best examples of these schemes, with their use of external access decks as a way of recreating the civic spirit of traditional tenemented streets, and the inclusion of modern features like lifts and heated flooring helping to lift living standards for the residents.
‘Cables Wynd was the largest block of flats in Edinburgh at the time, and possibly the most accomplished architecturally, characterising the ‘New Brutalism’ in building, which laid bare the essential materials of a building’s construction, using reinforced and in situ concrete.’
Cables Wynd House and Linksview House become the 50th and 51st buildings respectively, built after the Second World War to be recognised with listing at Category A, joining the likes of the Forth Road Bridge, St Peters’ Seminary in Cardross, The Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh, and the Bannockburn Memorial Cairn in Stirlingshire.
For background see the NewsBlogs
Read the full story
