Thursday February 26th 2026
Baxter's Place, Edinburgh
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Joe Sullivan
Plans to transform a shuttered social club into six serviced apartments have been approved by city councillors.
Wednesday’s development management committee meeting heard that developers wished to turn the Baxter’s Place venue into six serviced apartments.
Neighbours have struck out against the proposals, telling Edinburgh Live the plans were ‘vile’ and a ‘nightmare’.
But council officers recommended councillors grant permission for the application, partly in retrospect due to two short-term lets possibly already operating in the premises.
They added in a report that the change was from a commercial use to a commercial use, due to planning permission to use the property as flats in 2016 not being taken up.
Responding to questions, officers said this had been proven by a long history of enforcement action and investigation at the property over the past decade.
Questions and disagreements over the property have been running for years, and the property has come before the committee several times.
Councillors noted that local residents had split opinion on the site, with Conservative councillor Joanna Mowat saying: “There is a division in residents here, and local opinion.
“Some will maintain that this is a loss of residential, although it’s a sort of chimerical residential because it hasn’t been residential as we’d understand it.
“However there are other residents who are saying this would be a much better use because previous uses have been significantly disturbing, and are very supportive of this operator and this use.
“Leaving that to one side, I think the evidence we have in front of us is that we are actually dealing with a commercial use to another commercial use, because that residential use was never picked up.”
The property having last had a commercial use versus having a residential use limits the ability of councillors to object to the property seeing a change in use.
SNP councillor Amy McNeese-Mechan was opposed to granting planning permission, saying: “I’m really feeling stymied by this one because my understanding of the history of that building and those are architecturally significant buildings in the city.
“My understanding of it was that they were built to be typical Edinburgh-style residences with primarily ground-floor shops and so on.
“So in terms of the original purpose of the building, I would think that it clearly was residential.”
Councillors also discussed a proposal of having 24-hour reception at the premises, and some expressed doubt that this would actually take place.
But officers established that the committee had no power to mandate that a reception be set up and run at the property.
Committee convener and Liberal Democrat councillor Hal Osler said: “It is a change from commercial, not from residential, no matter what we might have wished to have seen, or others in the area.
“I can understand individuals’ frustration, because it would have been lovely to have these properties returning to residential, but that is not what is being presented to us.
“Hopefully we will get a resolution to this issue now, and I would suggest that we uphold the officers’ recommendations on this.”
Cllr McNeese-Mechan put forward an opposing position, but the committee voted for Cllr Osler’s position.
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