A historic Edinburgh St James Quarter building is set to be transformed into a family friendly restaurant.
The City of Edinburgh Council validated the proposal from The New World Trading Company recently to create the new site at St Andrew’s Hall.
The new two-storey bar and restaurant will be located at 3 St James Place as part of the regeneration of the area, offering shoppers at St James Quarter somewhere nearby to stop and refuel.
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Planning documents show that the new establishment will be called The Botanist and the developers New World Trading Company appear to specialise in redeveloping historic buildings across the UK.
Plans show the family friendly restaurant will have two floors, with tables on the ground floor and the first floor has booth for people to sit and enjoy their meals.
The old B-listed St Andrew’s Hall was granted planning permission to be renovated into a restaurant in 2015 to be integrated as a key element of the reimagined Little King Street / St James Place public realm.
St. Andrew’s Hall is located on St. James Place in Edinburgh, bounded by Cathedral Lane to the North-West and St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral to the North-East.
The building was originally constructed as a relief church in 1800 (architect unknown), and designated a category B listing in 1979.
It sits within the Eastern end of the Edinburgh New Town Conservation Area, along with Edinburgh’s World Heritage Site.
During the 1980’s, further internal changes were carried out to introduce a café at ground floor and games hall at mezzanine level.
Another major phase of works took place in 2002 – 2003, when the hall was leased to the John Lewis Partnership for use as offices, staff training and a customer collection centre.
The main body of the hall was given over to racking while the former café became the customer collection point. The upper storeys were converted to office use with modern partition walls.
The building remained in this use until the commencement of the Edinburgh St. James redevelopment project.
The City of Edinburgh Council are set to make a decision on the project in the coming weeks and months.
