Artisan Real Estate has received planning approval by The City of Edinburgh Council for its homes-led transformation of the former Caledonian Brewery in Shandon, Edinburgh.

The proposals will see the historic brewery site developed into a sustainable, low-carbon residential neighbourhood delivering 168 new private and affordable homes.

David Westwater, Artisan’s Managing Director for Scotland, said: “This is a hugely exciting opportunity to breathe new life into a complex and historically important city centre site, providing a high-quality mix of new homes and affordable housing in line with the Council’s policy to help tackle the city’s housing emergency.

“Working closely with our heritage experts, we have unravelled the different layers of history and development which have governed the evolution of the site. This has been a model design approach to a very complex and challenging site bringing together a mix of buildings developed at different stages during the last 150 years.

“From the very start, Artisan placed the preservation of the site’s unique heritage right at the heart of our approach, creating a distinctive footprint which both reflects the brewery’s historical legacy whilst creating a high-quality and well-connected urban neighbourhood which promises to set new standards for city centre living.”

Sitting at the western edge of Edinburgh’s city centre, the Caledonian Brewery (founded in 1869) was the capital’s last major brewery prior to the ceasing of operations in 2022 and has a distinctive range of B-listed Victorian buildings.

Around one fifth of the homes will be housed in the existing listed buildings which will be preserved and repurposed. Additional development proposals will respect and reflect the original footprint of the brewery – including recreating the skyline of the maltings buildings which was demolished following a fire almost 30 years ago.