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Swanston, Edinburgh

Areas of EdinburghCommons category link is locally definedUse British English from November 2017
Swanston cottages
Swanston cottages

Swanston is a village and residential area on the southern edge of Edinburgh, Scotland, noted for its picturesque thatched cottages set around an informal village green. Because of its relatively isolated position at the foot of the Pentland Hills, it has remained largely unaffected by commercial or suburban development. The village grew up in the 18th century, originally to provide accommodation for farm workers on Swanston Farm. The farm, in turn, can trace its origins back at least to the 13th century and possibly earlier. The area has also played a role in supplying Edinburgh with fresh water. Its most notable resident was the young Robert Louis Stevenson, whose family leased a holiday home in the village during the late 19th century.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Swanston, Edinburgh (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Swanston, Edinburgh
Moossteiggeräumt, München Aubing (Aubing-Lochhausen-Langwied)

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 55.892316 ° E -3.2165936 °
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Moossteiggeräumt

Moossteiggeräumt
81249 München, Aubing (Aubing-Lochhausen-Langwied)
Bayern, Deutschland
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Fairmilehead
Fairmilehead

Fairmilehead is a district of southern Edinburgh, Scotland. It lies approximately 3 miles (5 km) due south of the city centre and borders Midlothian. The area comprises the neighbourhoods of Buckstone, Caiyside, Caiystane, Swanston, Frogston and Winton. The centre of the area is the crossroads between Buckstone Terrace/Biggar Road and Frogston Road/Oxgangs Road. There was a Royal Bank of Scotland (closed October 2015) and there remains an accountant's office and a local convenience shop at the crossroads, as well as Fairmilehead Parish Church, which is a parish church of the Church of Scotland. Fairmile House Nursery and the nearby Morton Mains Farmhouse Nursery provide private childcare facilities suited to the exclusivity of the local community. This area contains some of the most expensive houses in Edinburgh, with an average home value of £362,798 and the most expensive streets being Frogston Road West (average £955,118), Margaret Rose Loan (£595,298) and Galachlaw Shot (£586,754). In 2017, the area was named by the Edinburgh Evening News as being in the top four 'happiest places to live in Edinburgh', with a 96% satisfaction rate.The eastern part of Fairmilehead contained the Princess Margaret Rose Orthopaedic Hospital from 1932 to 2002, when it was demolished to make way for new luxury housing. Recently, the Scottish Water Fairmilehead water treatment works have been converted into more high-end residential housing built by Cala and David Wilson Homes. Scottish Water retain offices there, adjacent to the Charwood Grill restaurant (previously Tusitaila Italian restaurant). The area is represented by: Scottish Parliament by Gordon MacDonald MSP (Scottish National Party), British Parliament by Ian Murray MP (Labour) On the City of Edinburgh Council (Colinton/Fairmilehead ward) by Cllrs Scott Arthur (Labour), Phil Doggart (Conservative) and Jason Rust (Conservative)

Oxgangs high rise flats

The Oxgangs tower blocks (known locally at the Oxgangs high rise flats) were a group of 3 tower blocks which were built on Firrhill Drive/Oxgangs Crescent in 1961 and 1962. They each contained a mixture of flats and maisonettes with 2 bedrooms each, totalling up to 80 homes per block. The blocks were called "Allermuir Court" "Caerketton Court" and "Capelaw Court", and were named after three of the nearby Pentland Hills.The original name of the group of three blocks was "Comiston Luxury Flats". They boasted outstanding views across Edinburgh, and offered a much better place to live than the slums of the inner city. However, a short while after their completion several problems were drawn into attention such as dampness, and after the 1970s the original families were beginning to move out of the blocks in search of other housing. By the 1980s they had become a very undesirable and run-down place to live, drugs and crime blighted the tower blocks and the people that lived in them. Only the desperate came to live in them and by this time they contained very few families. Structurally, the towers were suffering from neglect and because of this they were steadily but rapidly falling into disrepair. But nonetheless a community spirit existed and in 2000 frustrated tenants of the towers decided to hold a meeting with the council to try to find out the long-term future of the flats. The council told them that nothing was possible for at least another 10 years and because of this the tenants held a campaign to have the flats demolished, and with the help of a local MSP they won it. In 2003, Social Justice Minister Margaret Curran announced £10,000,000 in funding for demolition of the blocks and rebuilding of affordable housing on the site.Work began in 2003 with the decanting of Capelaw Court and by 2004 it was empty, finally being demolished (with the use of controlled explosives) on 17 April 2005. The demolition was screened live worldwide by the National Geographic Channel. Allermuir and Caerketton Court were next and they were both demolished within seconds of each other on 26 November 2006. On the site of Capelaw Court, 60 flats and 31 houses were built (managed by Dunedin Canmore Housing Association, Communities Scotland and the city council, in partnership). The first residents moved back to the new homes in early 2007. The site of the other two tower blocks is currently being developed into more housing. The whole project was due to be completed in around 2009/10.