Find your part of town

We cover six places by name, chosen because each shows a different kind of older Edinburgh home. Pick yours below. If your street is somewhere else, the area pages still help: the stopcock, the shared supply pipe and the Tenements Act work the same way in Corstorphine as in the Canongate.

How are the six areas grouped?

By the council's own neighbourhood labels. Its directory of conservation areas tags each one: the Old Town as Central, the New Town as Central, North and West, Leith and the Stockbridge colonies as North, Marchmont, Meadows and Bruntsfield as South and South-west, and the Dalry colonies as South-west. We use the same split.

The centre: Old Town and New Town

These two together form one of Edinburgh's two World Heritage Sites, so changes outside a flat face the strictest checks in the city. The Old Town is still largely tenements, usually four or five storeys tall. The New Town, built between 1767 and 1890, is mostly tenement blocks over sunken basements, with slate roofs and cast-iron rainwater pipes.

• Old Town: tall stairs, shared stacks, water pressure at the top
• New Town: Georgian blocks, rhones, rear bathrooms and flues

The north: Leith and Stockbridge

Leith mixes Victorian tenements over shops with converted warehouses and Georgian streets, plus some 1960s and 1970s housing. Stockbridge village sits inside the New Town conservation area, while its Colonies, two-storey terraces of upper and lower flats begun in 1861, have a conservation area of their own.

• Leith: very mixed building ages, lead and shared drains
• Stockbridge: colony houses, original roof tanks and consents

The south and west: Marchmont, Bruntsfield, Gorgie and Dalry

Marchmont was planned in 1876 as an estate of four- and five-storey Baronial tenements set around communal back greens. Further west, the Dalry Colonies of 1868 to 1870 were built in blocks of four flats that each shared a single water tank.

• Marchmont and Bruntsfield: back greens, votes, heat pumps
• Gorgie and Dalry: shared tanks, small supply pipes, missing shares

What is a colony house?

A distinctly Edinburgh kind of flat. The council's appraisal counts ten traditional colony developments in the city, the earliest from 1850, mostly as two-storey terraces split into upper and lower flats. They look like cottages, but the appraisal notes that shared foundations and roofs kept their cost down, which is why upstairs and downstairs owners often have repairs to settle together.

Does the advice apply if your area is not listed?

Yes. Scottish Water's rule that flats usually share a supply pipe holds across Scotland, as does the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004. Edinburgh has 50 conservation areas in total, so many homes outside our six also need a word with the council before outside work. Start with who owns which pipe or listed buildings and conservation areas.

Where this comes from

1. Conservation area A to Z — City of Edinburgh Council: neighbourhood labels
2. Listed buildings and conservation areas guidance — City of Edinburgh Council: World Heritage Sites
3. Old Town conservation area character appraisal — City of Edinburgh Council
4. New Town conservation area character appraisal — City of Edinburgh Council
5. Leith conservation area character appraisal — City of Edinburgh Council
6. Stockbridge colonies conservation area — City of Edinburgh Council directory entry
7. Marchmont, Meadows and Bruntsfield conservation area character appraisal — City of Edinburgh Council
8. Colonies conservation area character appraisal — City of Edinburgh Council: Stockbridge, Dalry and other colonies
9. Your pipes FAQ — Scottish Water (archived copy of its page)
10. Conservation areas — City of Edinburgh Council: 50 areas