Green light for flats at former home of Donaldson's School for the Deaf in Edinburgh Published duration 16 December 2015

image copyright STEVE WYPER

Planning permission has been approved for the redevelopment of a former school for the deaf in Edinburgh.

The Category A listed former home of the Donaldson's School for the Deaf, by Sir William Playfair, is to be restored and converted into 115 flats.

The permission also allows for 84 newly built homes in the grounds.

There will also be an underground car park with 364 residents spaces and 26 visitor spots. City & Country will convert the 1851 building.

CALA Evans will build the two and three bedroom homes, designed in a crescent shape to the rear of the Playfair building.

The south lawn that faces Wester Coates will be kept as an open, landscaped area.

Helen Moore, managing director of City & Country, said: "City & Country has a long and distinguished history working with incredibly inspiring and challenging architectural assets and the Playfair building is no different, sitting amongst some of the very finest buildings in the UK.

"The apartments will be carefully woven into the historic fabric of the building to provide genuinely unique places for people to live.

"Sited within the Edinburgh World Heritage Site, we are pleased that our plans demonstrate the ambitions we have to breathe new life into this icon of Scottish architecture and we cannot wait to get started."

image copyright cala

David McGrath, managing director of CALA Homes (East) said: "Donaldson's is a magnificent site and therefore its restoration is quite rightly a very high-profile project and one which we are proud to have been driving forward for a number of years.

"Throughout the community and council planning consultation process it has been very reassuring to see how committed everyone has been to seeing this site restored.

"We held a series of public consultations about the updated proposals, which were first approved in 2007, and listened carefully to extensive feedback. The local community all stated how important it is to see this building secured for future generations and we can now looking forward to making this a reality."

image copyright Cala