New Town
Heating and pipes in a New Town flat
New Town listed flat heating has to work inside a Georgian stone tenement, where outside changes such as flues, fans or heat pump units need the council's say first.
By the Pipes Up the Stair site team · how pages are checked · Updated
The New Town was built to a plan, and the council still guards that plan closely. Its New Town appraisal dates the area from 1767 to 1890 and calls it the most extensive surviving example of neo-classical town planning in the world. For anyone living in one of its flats, that status shapes the boiler, the bathroom and the back wall.
What does a typical New Town block look like?
A hollow-square tenement block, with a sunken basement and three to four storeys above, is the main building form the appraisal describes. Roofs are mostly graded slate with lead flashings to parapet or valley gutters, rainwater goods are generally cast iron, and cupolas sit over almost every internal stair. Later blocks often have an "M" roof with a leaded platform in the middle. Behind many blocks run mews lanes, now largely homes.
Who pays when a gutter or rhone fails?
Usually the owners together. Those parapet gutters and cast-iron downpipes serve the whole block, and the council lists down pipes and rhones among typical shared areas. Your title deeds come first; where they say nothing, the Tenement Management Scheme treats the roof and external walls as scheme property. Our pages on shared pipes and the Tenements Act and council shared repairs help cover voting and costs.
Where should a new bathroom or extractor go?
To the back, if the council agrees. Its guidance on listed buildings prefers new kitchens and bathrooms at the rear so downpipes and ventilators do not clutter the front, and wants extractor fans on rear or side walls, not in windows or fanlights. The same guidance says replacing a modern kitchen or bathroom rarely needs consent. Plan it with bathroom refit in a tenement flat.
Can a boiler flue or heat pump go on the wall?
Ask before anything is drilled. The appraisal notes that in a conservation area most alterations to the outside of flats need planning permission, and the Old and New Towns are a World Heritage Site, where the government's 2024 circular gives no heat pump permitted development. The council adds that heat pump units should generally stay off principal elevations. Read listed buildings and conservation areas, boilers in tenement flats and heat pumps in flats.
Why do tall Georgian rooms run damp?
Moisture has to go somewhere. Historic Environment Scotland's guidance says condensation is a sign of too much moisture inside, not a window fault, and suggests opening sash windows slightly at top and bottom for trickle ventilation. More in condensation and damp and radiators in old flats.
Does a basement flat carry extra responsibility?
The ground under it may be yours. The Tenements Act, section 2 says a bottom flat includes the solum beneath it unless the title says otherwise, while the shared drains in the block's ground stay private to the owners together. See who owns which pipe.
Where this comes from
- New Town conservation area character appraisal — City of Edinburgh Council: dates, building form, roofs, planning controls
- Shared repairs and maintenance, page 2 — City of Edinburgh Council: shared areas
- Tenement Management Scheme — scheme property
- Listed buildings and conservation areas guidance — City of Edinburgh Council: kitchens, bathrooms, fans, heat pump units
- Planning Circular 1/2024, chapter 6 — heat pumps in World Heritage Sites
- INFORM guide: condensation — Historic Environment Scotland
- INFORM guide: mould — Historic Environment Scotland: sash window ventilation
- Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004, section 2 — bottom flat and solum