Donaldson’s, Edinburgh

Challenge

Situated on the outskirts of Edinburgh, the former Donaldson’s Hospital is one of the city’s grandest and most recognisable buildings. It was originally opened as a hospital for poor and vulnerable children in 1851 by Queen Victoria, who at the time commented that the it was even more splendid than some of her own palaces.

It has also served the community as a school and has even been mooted as an ideal home for the Scottish parliament, but by 2008 the hospital had fallen into disrepair and remained empty for a decade.

Developer City and Country is currently converting the building into luxury apartments, with prices ranging from £250,000 to £1,625,000. An outstanding feature of the development is that it sits amid 16 acres of private landscaped parkland, with formal parterres, sweeping lawns and mature trees. Landscaping has also taken place in the chapel garden, morning and afternoon terrace, the park, the courtyard and parterre terrace.

Result

The glorious gardens are an essential part of the sympathetic restoration of this historically important building, which has been renamed The Playfair after its original architect William Playfair. Residents of the 110 new homes can enjoy landscaped parkland befitting an iconic listed building.

Richard McMonagle, Director of P1 Contractors Ltd, said: “Our client, City & Country place a lot emphasis on the landscape around their developments and this has been refreshing for us as a contractor. We are delighted to have been involved in this project which has seen us also secure the next three phases of the project for both hard and soft landscaping which gives us a long-term input.

“Given some of the apartments in the development are on the market for over £1 million, the quality of the landscaping and plants must reflect this, so we turned to Johnsons who have again played a key part in achieving this.