The National Trust for Scotland has bought six adjacent office buildings in Edinburghs Charlotte Square as its new headquarters. In addition to procuring a new headquarters for itself, the purchase will allow the Trust to safeguard the integrity of one of the finest Georgian squares in Europe.
Three of the buildings: 26-28 Charlotte Square, totalling 1,578 sq m (16,995 sq ft), have been bought from Helical Bar and 29-31 Charlotte Square, totalling 1,294 sq m (13,932 sq ft), have been bought from the Crown Estate Commissioners. The total purchase price was slightly over £5m.
The purchase and subsequent refurbishment of the buildings has been financed by a £3.7m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £700,000 from the Historic Scotland fund. The trust plans to finance its own contribution by raising £1.5m through the sale of four other Edinburgh buildings: 1 North Charlotte Street, 18 & 22 Young Street and 30 Dean Street.
Chesterton acted for the National Trust for Scotland; Ryden advised Helical Bar and Hillier Parker acted for the Crown Estate Commissioners.
EGi News 02/04/96
