Greenhouse Café

LOCATION: Melrose, Scottish Borders

CLIENT: Milestone Garden and Leisure

CONTRACTOR: Cruikshanks and Sons Ltd.

The Solution

CSY worked closely with the local conservation officer and Historic Environment Scotland to establish a series of acceptable design principles that would achieve the clients brief without compromising the contribution of the existing buildings to the Melrose Conservation Area.

Listening closely to the client’s needs, early consideration was given as to how both buildings could be successfully connected in a manner that would also allow occupants to benefit from views to the Abbey. The solution was to propose a contemporary, glazed intervention between the two historic buildings that would remain concealed from the principal street frontage.

The Conclusion

The buildings’ relationship with Buccleuch Street was maintained and broadly unaltered by the main façade being brought back to its original intention with the reinstatement of an original first floor window. A sensitively designed ramp and new stone setts to the street frontage improved access and provided a positive contribution to the public realm.