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Screwfix and Toolstations are available also at Seafield plus SF at Sighthill. There's also Machine Mart at Piershill, but that doesn't sell much in the general fixings and DIY consumables side of thing.
Warriston B&Q still open, but access only from Powderhall side, access from Water of Leith side mysteriously barriered off for a long time now (vehicle and pedestrian) to provide a largely unused and temporary-looking storage compound.
One can also purchase a variety of hand tools, decorating supplies, and paint at places like B&M Stores, which is a sort of slightly upmarket pound shop.
For power tools etc. one can always shop online or go to Argos if it's urgent.
Actually Argos is pretty good for powertools if you're not looking for trade-quality ones; even then their SDS clutched drills are meant to be ridiculously cheap for the power and durability. (Yes, I was reading all about coring through a 1m+ thick sandstone wall.)
coring through a 1m+ thick sandstone wall
For this kind of activity I might be more inclined to visit HSS Hire and get something with HILTI written on the side.
OK, so we've got tools, fixings, timber and paint.
Where best for garden supplies in the city centre?
Again, B&M Stores is your friend... Also Argos.
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Student housing specialist Select Property Group has secured planning permission for a £41 million development at Fountainbridge in Edinburgh.
Operating under the firm’s Vita Student brand, the project will see the area’s former Palais de Danse – most recently a Mecca Bingo – transformed into 261 self-contained studios, along with a 5,000 square foot “social hub” area including private study rooms, a movie room and gym.
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Now plans have been tabled to demolish the building, which stands on the corner of Muirhouse Avenue and Pennywell Road, to make way for three blocks accommodating 108 students.
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According to CAMRA magazine Pints of View, the blue goose pub at slateford is threatened with being knocked down and turned into student flats
"threatened with being knocked down and turned into student flats"
Yes -
Student flats in Pennywell - definitely one for the "things I never expected to hear" list. Reckon the estate agents will have to put in the overtime on this one.
no more DIY by Magnus Hagdorn, on Flickr
no more DIY by Magnus Hagdorn, on Flickr
A unique vista, won't be around long, get your photos of it while it lasts.
It's gone already? I guess they were serious about it after all. Fortunately there's a Homebase at Craigleith; unfortunately the bike parking is minimal.
Also a B&Q at Powderhall/Warriston but also with minimal/improvised "bike parking".
So, I notice they have started clearing the site for the new student flats at Bothwell Street, just off Easter Road. Looking at the planning application, they have revised certain details. The proposals look decent. Plenty of bike storage with space set aside for more if needed. Don't know why it requires 22 car parking spaces though: at least those cars will not be cluttering Bothwell Street itself, I suppose that's something. Thankfully, the height of the block doesn't seem excessive and is in keeping with surrounding tenements - unlike the new 'affordable housing' block on the adjacent Lochend Butterfly / Urbane Den development, which greedily squeezed in an extra floor making it much taller than anything nearby.
Full application with drawings, etc. at Edinburgh Planning Portal for those interested:
14/05255/FUL | Demolish of existing steel framed warehouse buildings and subsequent 240 bed student accommodation development with associated external landscaping. | 14, 16-18 Bothwell Street Edinburgh EH7 5PS
I'm quite looking forward to the link to Sunnyside, will be a new option for more leisurely walking and cycling routes.
@kappers, yeah I hadn't realised the significance of this link. Currently sealed with a gate, it will instead be blocked by bollards, allowing excellent permeability for pedestrians and bikes. The private road in the development is explicitly marked as a public bike path too: good for cutting through if coming from the Crawford Bridge, possibly making a quieter alternative to Albion Road if heading north. Could be very handy for the students and local residents on Bothwell Street. Note also that in the plan there is also a link towards the possible future bike path when the railway line is eventually pulled up.
http://www.broughtonspurtle.org.uk/news/ziggurat-seek-shrub-place-student-block-extension
They're still doing some fit-out and snagging work on the new "Ziggurat" student prison at Shrub Hill on Leith Walk and already there's an application in to expand the building and convert some of the unused commercial and attic space into more habitable cubbyholes.
Demolition work now proceeding apace on the warehouse buildings on Bothwell Street. I daresay at this rate the steel frame will be erected within a few months.
Re: the Shrub Hill extension, it doesn't look too intrusive as it's towards the era of the existing building. More customers for the new Sinsberries Local I suppose, and eventually the tram when it goes doon the Walk...
Yes, it's not so much the architectural merit (or otherwise) which is the concern, it's what a project manager might call "scope creep"; get something through planning with a certain number of bedrooms and shop units and potential pedestrian square then fundamentally change that as soon as the building is up.
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Shrub Place was an opportunity for the council to do something really, really interesting, but that’s just been totally wasted, unfortunately.
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http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/starbucks-set-to-open-first-leith-walk-store-1-4022109
"Shrub Place Leith Walk was an opportunity for the council to do something really, really interesting like provide segregated cycle lanes all the way to the Foot Of The Walk, but that’s just been totally wasted, unfortunately."
FTFY
Strolling up Abbeymount yesterday, I was struck by just how huge the new student accommodation building is compared to what was there before. That said, it's not a bad building, some of the details are fairly decent. It does though have that corporate blandness that seems to typify much new building in Edinburgh: sandstone, glass and rectilinear form everywhere...
That's a lot of windows to remove...
More shots of the Abbeyhill residences, showing the height of them.
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DEVELOPERS are set to test Camden Council’s “Local List” system of protecting buildings of historic and civic importance after asking for permission to bulldoze a former “nursery for the fatherless” in Somers Town
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Strolling up Abbeymount yesterday, I was struck by just how huge the new student accommodation building is compared to what was there before.
It really is notable from the top of Arthur's Seat; the big, yellow plastic branding square in particular.
Feature in the Grauniad yesterday on how towns and cities are being filled up with shiny new student accommodation blocks targeted at overseas students, several places suffering "indigestion" as a result, locals unhappy, etc. No mention of Edinburgh, and surprisingly no mention of the tax dodges, building regs dodges, and lack of council tax income...
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/29/en-suite-education-the-rise-of-luxury-student-housing
http://www.broughtonspurtle.org.uk/news/bq-close-%E2%80%93-new-flats-planned-beside-water-leith
B&Q TO CLOSE – NEW FLATS PLANNED BESIDE WATER OF LEITH
Well it just got a little bit less convenient to get DIY and gardening supplies if you live in the centre of town. This was the last large DIY store in town following closure of Homebase at St. Leonards and B&Q on Easter Road a few years back.
It's off to Homebase at Craigleith or one of the out-of-town Barns at Straiton / Hermiston Gait / Newcraighall if you can't find what you need at Screwfix.
(Or Wickes at Westfield for certain things, although it's got more of a trade focus and no garden section)
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