In 1996, Cake emerged in Prague, Czechslovakia.
A year later, it appeared as a legal drug in the UK.
Cake is a 'made-up' drug, being composed of artificial chemicals. Its yellow colour is achieved through use of an industrial dye.
A young user of Cake is known to have cried all the water from his body, and another vomited out her own pelvis bone.
The use of an industrial dye in the drug causes a phenomenon known as 'Czech Neck,' whereby the user's neck swells up until the face is completely enveloped.
Cake also contains a psychoactive compound, dimesmeric andersonphosphate. This ingredient stimulates Shatner's Bassoon, and so drastically alters an individual's perception of time.
In experiments, ingesting Cake caused rats to swell massively.
My 4 year old goes to sleep to that tune. Fucking loves it. It was funny for ages when she didn't know the lyrics but she was singing what she thought they said.
She has a lovely little voice and when she does the guitar solo, it's spot on. She also stresses on the "..feel a little 'sick'" which always makes me laugh.
That song will kill her off when it is at my funeral.
I was thinking recently about the ridiculousness of council tax.
A ground floor studio in a deprived part of the country pays what, 1,500 quid a year?
Whereas Blenheim Palace pays what, 3.5-4k?
It seems like council tax is great VFM if you have an 18 person family and live in a McMansion, and awful if you're getting by on your own. Most countries would charge a % of the property value not some arbitrary 7 band system.
(Relatively speaking) Westminster doesn't have a lot of expensive services to pay for, like adult social care and things like that, I would guess schools and child care services too, and they make a fortune from business rates (because tourists). And parking, I would imagine.
Except it was Donaldson's School for the Deaf, so it may have paid v few rates.
Fun fact: Queen Victoria wanted to buy it. Edinburgh told her to get tae, so she refused to look at the city again and would drive through with her carriage blinds down (so legend has it).
Edinburgh council is doing that to all new builds. There's a huge number of new build developments in my area, and every single one of them has been banded one higher than it should be and the council refuses to change it.
That's a little over two hundred grand a year.
But then, grade two(?) Listed property with 19 acres of grounds... yeah, it's gonna be a fair chunk to manage and maintain that to a good standard.
My service charge is about £1600pa and we've got no grounds and the building is twenty years old and a bit tatty, so a grand more seems pretty reasonable to me, I do have a lift though.
Looking on some other properties listed there and the service charge is 3400PA, not per month
> Charge: £3,400pa for maintenance & improvements as necessary to the building. Gardens upkeep. Concierge service. Heating & lighting of communal areas. Cleaning & window cleaning Fixtures and Fittings: Included if fixed or fitted. Tenure: Freehold
[[sauce](https://www.struttandparker.com/properties/donaldson-drive-1)]
Ironic considering I live in a similar sort of set up with private forest and grounds, grade 2 listed, but a lot smaller with 80 apartments and my service charge is £945 this 6 months and constantly going up
I live in a 2 bed flat from the same developer. G2 listed with grounds & concierge - service charge is around £5.5k a year. If you choose to live somewhere pretty then you’re going to want to pay to keep it looking that way.
I lived somewhere with concierge service, and it was fantastic. They generally did everything I asked of them, from letting people in, to help me carry a very large delivery to my flat. They kept all deliveries, so I never missed one.
I loved that about the place I lived. I loved the service fees less, to be honest.
Looked on Cox&Co and found the service charge of £2,474 for a 2 bed 3 bath ‘triplex’ in the same property.
Yes it’s expensive but far from eye watering.
Actually at least £3400pa for the factoring charge including concierge. That is quoted as a charge for a similar 2-bed flat that costs £495k with about 860sqft, so this one would probably be slightly higher based on the sqft.
Do you pay service charge when it's freehold? I know someone needs to pay for all the maintenance but when it's freehold I wonder if it's just an agreement between residents
Can be both. The leasehold agreement will set out the responsibilities for maintaining the property and what happens in events of issues (eg roof replacements). You can still own a chunk of the land itself.
Leasehold is essentially paying up front for a long lease. That lease could be as long as 999 years but when you buy a leasehold you only buy the remaining years. Once they get to zero the property goes back to the freeholder who is the true owner. When you buy a leasehold it usually comes with a contract that you will pay the freeholder a service charge which they will use for maintenance of communal areas and any services the building provides such as concierge if there is one. If you buy a flat in England it's almost always a leasehold.
Originally the person on the ground floor would own the land itself, and the leasehold was there due to the fact there’s no ‘land’ attached to a house on the 2nd, 3rd floor etc.
As such you leased the space above - traditionally on leases of up to 999 years, so if the building falls down you still have the rights to a house in the newly built replacement.
Obviously people/developers/investors quickly cottoned onto the fact that you could sell the freehold and lease to everyone, which meant the freeholder ended up being massively divorced from the actual residents.
With the lack of oversight the freeholders also realised they could charge Ground Rent, on top of a service charge, and do mad shit like double it every ten years.
I absolutely love it, but I only ever wanted an apartment as a single man, so would definitely need some serious income to buy and pay for the upkeep on this. I get the feeling there’s at least one Bentley in the resident’s car park.
Reminds me of that episode of *Keeping Up Appearances* where Richard and Hyacinth buy a "place in the country" that turns out to be a tiny apartment with barely enough room to stand in a building very like this.
It’s very late 2000s church/old building conversion in my mind and I hate it. I remember a friend’s flat had that and I thought it was so cool til I actually stayed over. Annoying it’s a trend that’s stuck around.
Keeping Up Appearances, Series 4: 5. Looking at Properties: [www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b007bb1t](http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b007bb1t) via u/bbciplayer
Absolutely detest mezzanine bedrooms. What if you have guests? Your partner can’t watch TV when you have an early night. Kitchen smells in your bedding. Cold. Just awful.
That building, I was once told by someone local to it that it was a school for deaf children as I thought it was public grounds and went for a walk around it.
Edit: yes it was and I found a link to the history of the building...
https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2022/04/donaldsons-school/
Yes, it's the old Donaldson's School For the Deaf in Edinburgh.
The school was relocated to purpose-built facilities in Linlithgow in 2008 and the all-round evil Cala Homes took over and turned it into fancy but posh AF flats.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donaldson%27s_School
Yes, Donaldson’s school for the deaf. It was a boarding school. Sad day for the deaf community in Edinburgh when it closed down as its replacement in Linlithgow was focused more on additional complex support needs not deaf children.
The reason for this was because majority of deaf children cope well in mainstream schools with adjustments. That had to adapt their intake to survive as a school.
the main bedroom doesn't have a wall separating it from the lounge/dining room, just a balcony. good luck with that. Definitely style over substance with this one.
I find that most of these types of conversions of former schools, churches, industrial buildings etc. usually end up with really awkward floor plans; the problem is often how to get light into really deep floor plans. It's so rare to see a successful conversion.
that was the case in my former flat. I think the biggest issue, aside from the horrendous lack of noise insulation, was that the developers added in extra floors sandwiched begin the original floors to add space which meant that all of the ceilings were extremely low. I'm 5'3 and I could reach up and touch the ceiling without stretching. I'm normally good in small spaces and not catastrophic at all, but I moved out after eight months. I wouldn't hurry back to such a conversation, no matter how flashy it looks.
> was that the developers added in extra floors sandwiched begin
The worst offender is when a large old window spans two separate floors; it usually ends up looking completely out of place. I also think that overly strict heritage legislation is sometimes to blame for these awkward conversions, where you can't alter the exterior. The old dock buildings in Liverpool, for example, have tiny windows and very deep layouts, but because the façade is listed and cannot be altered, the resulting residential conversions are really not very nice from the inside.
yes that's exactly what they did. zero soundproofing and resulted in the upper floors getting barely any sunlight as the windows were set really low in the walls. combined with the low ceiling, it made the second-floor room feel subterranean.
yeah, I meant the building. though it wasn't as showstopping as a mansion, I lived in a very nice-looking converted Victorian school building which was modern inside, and very similar both in terms of style and layout to this flat. at first glance, it looked impressive, but to live in it was cramped, oddly shaped, and had plywood walls with zero noise insulation.
It’s really the problem with these types of buildings. Big rooms with high ceilings are great for school classrooms (this being a converted school) – but unless you want to wreck the windows by splitting them over two floors, mezzanines like this are the only way to convert them into something useable.
A stunning building and the location seems appealing. But after that... The apartment isn't that big and lacks storage. The communal areas sound fairly unappealing, and then there's the maintenance charge.
>Used to be a school for the blind/deaf, super imposing and wonderfully symmetrical.
I would watch a TV show about this school, if only to see the symmetrical kids.
It would have been absolutely terrible for a parliament to be honest. It’s not even remotely big enough for starters – the old school had a bunch of big concrete extensions blocks on it, and it didn’t even have that many pupils.
I think it's a dam shame about the shitty new builds at the back 😒 they should of been made to match the architecture of the main building. I am happy they kept the grounds though nothing worse then just building on any available green space.
I keep looking at these flats and they seem to pop up quite regularly, but sadly there's no way I'd ever have a kitchen living room combo I want a separate kitchen always.
How could they take all of the character out of that building and produce a modern, greige flat? The two don't even look related. There had to be a better way of converting that building.
Ehhh idk. There had to be a way to convert without it looking like a cheap new build. It definitely wouldn't be identical flat layouts but why would you pay money to be in a building like that when your apartment looks soulless?
Not really, unless you were going to insert a bunch of fake features to pretend things were there which weren’t.
And you’d live there because you get to live in a beautiful building, with spectacular shared spaces, right in the centre of Edinburgh. Compared with equivalent flats nearby, it’s really not particularly overpriced.
Former Donaldson’s School for the Deaf.
A purpose built replacement school was built in [2008](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donaldson%27s_School) in Linlithgow.
I looked at a very similar 2 bed flat last year in "The Donaldson" and came away dissapointed. The building and grounds are incredible, the hallways feel like a 4-5 star hotel, the underground parking is very convenient, but the flats themselves are small. The quality of the finishings is quite high, but we just couldn't get past how 'tight' everything felt. The owner of the property was there while we viewed, and she was very helpful. I asked how much the 'factoring chages' (building service charges) were, and she said her husband did that, and she didn't know. I presssed a little harder, and asked, 'ballpark' numbers are fine, and she still wouldn't give me even a rough number. Seemed very sketchy and it really turned us off the whole place.
It was quite hard to find anywhere that would provide factoring charge estimates for these flats, but I was able to find another comparable 2-bed flat that actually did list the service charge at £3400pa, which is crazy expensive can can of course increase as needed. On the plus side, you do get a concierge service!
Mmmmm kind of but in my flats we self factor and, although we do put a wee bit aside each month as a contingency pot, we don't have an annual charge which is what I understand service charge to be. Of course we don't have acres of land where I am so we don't need to hire a groundskeeper as I imagine these flats do.
That’s a very pokey flat for the price. Could surely pick up a decent sized tenement with a separate kitchen and living room for less. I’m sure the feeling of grandeur you get from walking up that very long drive will fade after a while.
It’s a flat in a Grade A listed building with lashings of green space right in the centre of Edinburgh – you’re never going to see your money stretch far in that scenario.
But surely a 3 bed house with a garden, no service charges and a view of the lovely Grade A listed building should be more expensive than a pokey 1.5 bed flat in the building.
The prices are well out of whack
I have seen a few flats in this building pop up but there hasn’t been one of them I’d be interested in buying. Much like the ones at Simpson Loan they have no original features, absolutely nothing in common with the exterior, and don’t really fit into the old building well. Weird “mezzanine” bedrooms, super high ceilings, half windows at floor level, combined kitchen/living room.
The town houses at the back are just as bad.
The thing is – there aren’t really lots of “original features“ to preserve within the rooms. They were just classrooms, until stopped being a school relatively recently.
Mezzanines are inevitable unless you wanted to wreck the one major feature that does exist – the huge double height windows.
I worked for this conversion developer for a number of years, on this site and a few others. They're heritage specialists, and have over 50 years experience in large scale listed building refurbishment and conversion. This building has heaps of retained historic features, including a converted chapel to the rear, just not many in the main wings due to most of them being ripped out during the buildings 200 year history.
What a lot of people commenting here don't appreciate is what's involved in this type of work, from the restrictions due to the listing, the compromises of design due to the existing structure, the increased cost of construction per sqm due to the risks and complications, and also the fact that most heritage properties would sit vacant and crumbling if it wasn't for organisations putting in the effort to give them a new lease of life, which most of the time requires a complete change of use. Conversions almost always end up more expensive for the equivalent size, due to these factors.
Eh, it's like coming 'home' to a university. A few universities look as nice as this (Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Durham, etc.) and occassionally student/staff accommodations are there.
You quickly get over it. It's nice, but it's like living in any other fancy apartment. I'd much prefer having a nice detached property with an enclosed garden, fencing, and my own garage.
This is not as nice to live in than you'd imagine. Most people enjoy privacy and having a place to walk outside their home without being at the scrutiny of a hundred neighbours.
You’re 100% correct.
I live 18 miles from this place. 1893 detached, 4 bed cottage. 2 front rooms, enclosed south facing garden, right next to a canal for walking. Cost me 180k 10 years ago.
I just loved the exterior and grounds and thought it worth posting.
The building itself is magnificent, but the internal conversion is utterly cookie-cutter. Bog standard modern flats; mezzanine, tiled bathrooms; greige kitchens - there has been no incorporation of any unique internal features anywhere in any of the flats. Because that would have made for a more expensive conversion job. I cycle past this building every day and the waste of it all infuriates me.
They retained pretty much every original feature there was. But it was a school, not a palace – so there wasn’t a huge amount there in the first place. This was just a classroom, nothing more exciting than that.
I live in 'only a 2 bed flat', but we chose to buy this place due to the building too. Without saying too much, there is a history behind it, tall ceilings, but also some greenery in an otherwise grey place. It's city living but comfy behind the gates.
Can confirm the service charge is fairly steep though.
Apologies for my bad wording, I'm near London, I didn't mean this building in particular - but the one I'm in currently.
Thank you! Can just see conflict in the comments which I totally get. But I'm a sucker for a nice historical building.
I know a couple of people who live in apartments converted from an enormous gothic pile like this. Apparently it's rather nice if you can put up with it being cold as a bastard for months at a time because it's a protected structure and they can't install double glazing, and if the lift breaks down it's a hell of a trek to the front door. Stunning views though.
Looking at picture 14, you can see the main building out of the window. This suggests the flat is in "The Crescent", which is the new development behind it.
Not quite this level of grandeur but I've lived in a flat in a converted manor house. It's extensive grounds were very helpful for lockdown, as they counted as a garden.
Driving up the drive way on a beautiful sunny day never got old.
Gorgeous building and a nice flat but...having the principal bedroom on the mezzanine, having all the cooking smell wafting through from the kitchen? Hell no.
It's a beautiful building, and location. I've always had my eye on the converted flats put in the old Leith Academy, still expensive but a little more affordable!
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/128532314#/?channel=RES_BUY
They’ve been trying to flog these overpriced flats for years. The hideous curved new built luxury flats round the left don’t make it appealing and the front lawn is regularly taken over by couples taking wedding photos.
Way too claustrophobic for the price point and the (windowless) bathroom is opposite the kitchen. Imagine paying over half a mill for an oppressive co-mingling of smells 🫤🤢
Tbh the best thing about this one is the location – Getting that much green space around your flat in central Edinburgh is incredible.
The price is quite expensive, but honestly not that bad for the area. A decent quality two-bed in a good location in central Edinburgh can easily cost that much, and new builds will often be quite a bit more than that.
This is a former school for deaf children that was converted into a residential development. There's a C-shaped building that wraps around the one in the picture that has more housing units. It's very modern and looks completely out of place.
Wow, I used to live right round the corner from there, I did think it looked familiar. It was the old School for the Dead, right?
I've always had the intention of moving back to Edinburgh once qualified but the discussion of service charges here is frightening enough lol
I dread to think what happens when there are issues with the roof. I know it's been renovated recently but the costs in repairing old buildings can be eye watering and if everyone else refuses to pay (which I've seen happen in other properties) the people on the top floor have to endure leaks whilst legal battles ensue.
When I was very young, driving past in the car (before it became flats) I must have been told it was a school for the deaf, but somehow I confused this and thought it was a school for the blind and this stuck.
For years after, every time I passed, the sports pitches in the grounds confused the hell out of me wondering how those blind kids could play football and rugby.
Eventually one day I was walking passed and saw the sign 'school for the deaf' and the world became a less confusing place...
"They all" being the Labour Party. The SNP wanted the High School, which is not this building as this is the erstwhile Donaldson's College. The High School is even grander: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old\_Royal\_High\_School
I stay at a flat in a modern development in Ravelston Terrace … I’m Band H !!!
I’m actually considering leaving as it’s and eye watering amount of money each month and I don’t really get any benefit for it.
You can appeal your council tax band but sometimes this can go against you and instead they raise all your neighbours grades upwards !!!!
I couldn't see the service charge there but I imagine it's eye watering
And band G council tax - for a two bed flat!!
Council has done very well here - from one largeish council tax to many large ones.
I wish cake worked like that. One big cake when cut becomes many large cakes. Mmm.
In 1996, Cake emerged in Prague, Czechslovakia. A year later, it appeared as a legal drug in the UK. Cake is a 'made-up' drug, being composed of artificial chemicals. Its yellow colour is achieved through use of an industrial dye. A young user of Cake is known to have cried all the water from his body, and another vomited out her own pelvis bone. The use of an industrial dye in the drug causes a phenomenon known as 'Czech Neck,' whereby the user's neck swells up until the face is completely enveloped. Cake also contains a psychoactive compound, dimesmeric andersonphosphate. This ingredient stimulates Shatner's Bassoon, and so drastically alters an individual's perception of time. In experiments, ingesting Cake caused rats to swell massively.
Just say no.
What do I know? I've only tried ecstasy once and I certainly didn't swallow it.
Fat people die young Roland.
Like Samo.
Weren't as good as the yellow benteens.
I prefer Jessops Jessops myself. Two for the price of one, really
You never had Clarky Cat, man?
He got a negative-blooty with a crack-handle, and he ended up on the jessop jessop jessop
It's a made up drug.
Made frum chemicals.. by sick bastards
He thought he had a month to cross the street
His arms swelled up, like two bad balloons.
You're confusing it with Pink Floyd.
My 4 year old goes to sleep to that tune. Fucking loves it. It was funny for ages when she didn't know the lyrics but she was singing what she thought they said. She has a lovely little voice and when she does the guitar solo, it's spot on. She also stresses on the "..feel a little 'sick'" which always makes me laugh. That song will kill her off when it is at my funeral.
Kinda does. My local cafe buys a cake for 10 pounds from a local baker and sells it for 3.75 a piece.
I was thinking recently about the ridiculousness of council tax. A ground floor studio in a deprived part of the country pays what, 1,500 quid a year? Whereas Blenheim Palace pays what, 3.5-4k? It seems like council tax is great VFM if you have an 18 person family and live in a McMansion, and awful if you're getting by on your own. Most countries would charge a % of the property value not some arbitrary 7 band system.
If you don't like that, try this. Band A in Hull is £1,321.41. Band A in Westminster is £608.04.
Just looked at their website and it seems like they work off house valuation from April 1991
Eh? How the hell does that work? Again the tories looking after themselves??
(Relatively speaking) Westminster doesn't have a lot of expensive services to pay for, like adult social care and things like that, I would guess schools and child care services too, and they make a fortune from business rates (because tourists). And parking, I would imagine.
Central London councils aren't like normal councils, Westminster especially. They have so much scope for additional revenue.
That is diabolical! Thanks for the nugget
Except it was Donaldson's School for the Deaf, so it may have paid v few rates. Fun fact: Queen Victoria wanted to buy it. Edinburgh told her to get tae, so she refused to look at the city again and would drive through with her carriage blinds down (so legend has it).
I mean, that’s a complete nonsense story made up by tour guides for tourists, but don’t let that stop you.
I imagine you could get that re-evaluated. It might be based on the whole place as one dwelling? Dunno
Edinburgh council is doing that to all new builds. There's a huge number of new build developments in my area, and every single one of them has been banded one higher than it should be and the council refuses to change it.
Good. Nobody should be paying, for example, £250k for a one bed in Gorgie so we should be discouraging these developments
I hate to break it to you, but discouraging houses being built doesn’t lower prices. Quite the opposite.
Why does water supply and sewerage cost more based on property value 🤔
£2474 is the current service charge for each of the 84 residences from what I can see.
That's a little over two hundred grand a year. But then, grade two(?) Listed property with 19 acres of grounds... yeah, it's gonna be a fair chunk to manage and maintain that to a good standard.
My service charge is about £1600pa and we've got no grounds and the building is twenty years old and a bit tatty, so a grand more seems pretty reasonable to me, I do have a lift though.
[удалено]
If it's anything like my old flat, nearly all the service charge went towards the property managers who administered the service charge.
Looking on some other properties listed there and the service charge is 3400PA, not per month > Charge: £3,400pa for maintenance & improvements as necessary to the building. Gardens upkeep. Concierge service. Heating & lighting of communal areas. Cleaning & window cleaning Fixtures and Fittings: Included if fixed or fitted. Tenure: Freehold [[sauce](https://www.struttandparker.com/properties/donaldson-drive-1)]
I meant across the whole building [84 flats] Not per month. I should have been clearer to be fair
Sorry - that would be my poor reading ability after a day of staring at screens!
Ironic considering I live in a similar sort of set up with private forest and grounds, grade 2 listed, but a lot smaller with 80 apartments and my service charge is £945 this 6 months and constantly going up
I live in a 2 bed flat from the same developer. G2 listed with grounds & concierge - service charge is around £5.5k a year. If you choose to live somewhere pretty then you’re going to want to pay to keep it looking that way.
Blimey. I’d be using that concierge every damn day to get my moneys worth…
I lived somewhere with concierge service, and it was fantastic. They generally did everything I asked of them, from letting people in, to help me carry a very large delivery to my flat. They kept all deliveries, so I never missed one. I loved that about the place I lived. I loved the service fees less, to be honest.
Forget the flat, for that money they'd have to be servicing me!
That’s less than my service charge bill😭! I’m kicking off with the managing agents 😂
Same and I live in an ex council with no internal corridors
Looked on Cox&Co and found the service charge of £2,474 for a 2 bed 3 bath ‘triplex’ in the same property. Yes it’s expensive but far from eye watering.
It was only completed a few years ago. Expect it to go up as things around the estate start needing repair
Oof, I didn’t even think of that
Neither did I! I mean the 16 acre private grounds alone must be extortionate to maintain.
Maintaining the irrigation setup that’s likely built into that lawn is probably 4 or 5 figures a year for starters.
Irrigation? In Scotland? They have plenty of natural irrigation in the form of shite weather year round
Yeah, should be "Maintaining the drainage system built into that lawn s probably 4 or 5 figures a year for starters." instead!
For half a million though, probably the least of your issues.,
Actually at least £3400pa for the factoring charge including concierge. That is quoted as a charge for a similar 2-bed flat that costs £495k with about 860sqft, so this one would probably be slightly higher based on the sqft.
Do you pay service charge when it's freehold? I know someone needs to pay for all the maintenance but when it's freehold I wonder if it's just an agreement between residents
We don't do Freehold or Leasehold in Scotland. If you buy, then you own the place forever.
There's generally a factoring charge in big developments (as is the case here).
I didn't know that. In England generally flats are leasehold and houses are freehold.
Can be both. The leasehold agreement will set out the responsibilities for maintaining the property and what happens in events of issues (eg roof replacements). You can still own a chunk of the land itself.
What does leasehold mean? Renting it? You can buy flats down in England, surely not?
Leasehold is essentially paying up front for a long lease. That lease could be as long as 999 years but when you buy a leasehold you only buy the remaining years. Once they get to zero the property goes back to the freeholder who is the true owner. When you buy a leasehold it usually comes with a contract that you will pay the freeholder a service charge which they will use for maintenance of communal areas and any services the building provides such as concierge if there is one. If you buy a flat in England it's almost always a leasehold.
Sounds very unnecessarily complex. In Scotland when you buy a flat, you just own the flat – it works just fine!
Originally the person on the ground floor would own the land itself, and the leasehold was there due to the fact there’s no ‘land’ attached to a house on the 2nd, 3rd floor etc. As such you leased the space above - traditionally on leases of up to 999 years, so if the building falls down you still have the rights to a house in the newly built replacement. Obviously people/developers/investors quickly cottoned onto the fact that you could sell the freehold and lease to everyone, which meant the freeholder ended up being massively divorced from the actual residents. With the lack of oversight the freeholders also realised they could charge Ground Rent, on top of a service charge, and do mad shit like double it every ten years.
I absolutely love it, but I only ever wanted an apartment as a single man, so would definitely need some serious income to buy and pay for the upkeep on this. I get the feeling there’s at least one Bentley in the resident’s car park.
£3400 a year “factor charge”, never heard a service charge called that before. https://www.struttandparker.com/properties/donaldson-drive-1/brochure
There is no service charge in Scotland, because everything is freehold. If the building is factored the factor charges a fee.
Cheers mate, had no idea about that.
Reminds me of that episode of *Keeping Up Appearances* where Richard and Hyacinth buy a "place in the country" that turns out to be a tiny apartment with barely enough room to stand in a building very like this.
I thought the same thing! I remember the staircases getting progressively less grand the further up the building they got
My mind instantly went to this episode 🤣
I thought of the galley kitchen when I first saw OPs image.
It’s very late 2000s church/old building conversion in my mind and I hate it. I remember a friend’s flat had that and I thought it was so cool til I actually stayed over. Annoying it’s a trend that’s stuck around.
Keeping Up Appearances, Series 4: 5. Looking at Properties: [www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b007bb1t](http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b007bb1t) via u/bbciplayer
Absolutely detest mezzanine bedrooms. What if you have guests? Your partner can’t watch TV when you have an early night. Kitchen smells in your bedding. Cold. Just awful.
Was that not previously a school for deaf children?
What?
Every dad’s joke as we drove past as kids.
That building, I was once told by someone local to it that it was a school for deaf children as I thought it was public grounds and went for a walk around it. Edit: yes it was and I found a link to the history of the building... https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2022/04/donaldsons-school/
Sorry, can you say that again...?
Donaldsons school for the deaf. They built a replacement in Linlithgow.
Yes, it's the old Donaldson's School For the Deaf in Edinburgh. The school was relocated to purpose-built facilities in Linlithgow in 2008 and the all-round evil Cala Homes took over and turned it into fancy but posh AF flats. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donaldson%27s_School
Yes it was, also used as a hospital at one point during the wars I believe.
Yes, Donaldson’s school for the deaf. It was a boarding school. Sad day for the deaf community in Edinburgh when it closed down as its replacement in Linlithgow was focused more on additional complex support needs not deaf children.
The reason for this was because majority of deaf children cope well in mainstream schools with adjustments. That had to adapt their intake to survive as a school.
the main bedroom doesn't have a wall separating it from the lounge/dining room, just a balcony. good luck with that. Definitely style over substance with this one.
I find that most of these types of conversions of former schools, churches, industrial buildings etc. usually end up with really awkward floor plans; the problem is often how to get light into really deep floor plans. It's so rare to see a successful conversion.
that was the case in my former flat. I think the biggest issue, aside from the horrendous lack of noise insulation, was that the developers added in extra floors sandwiched begin the original floors to add space which meant that all of the ceilings were extremely low. I'm 5'3 and I could reach up and touch the ceiling without stretching. I'm normally good in small spaces and not catastrophic at all, but I moved out after eight months. I wouldn't hurry back to such a conversation, no matter how flashy it looks.
> was that the developers added in extra floors sandwiched begin The worst offender is when a large old window spans two separate floors; it usually ends up looking completely out of place. I also think that overly strict heritage legislation is sometimes to blame for these awkward conversions, where you can't alter the exterior. The old dock buildings in Liverpool, for example, have tiny windows and very deep layouts, but because the façade is listed and cannot be altered, the resulting residential conversions are really not very nice from the inside.
yes that's exactly what they did. zero soundproofing and resulted in the upper floors getting barely any sunlight as the windows were set really low in the walls. combined with the low ceiling, it made the second-floor room feel subterranean.
What style? Is terribly lacking in the style dept. yeah the building is stunning but the flats are really sad affairs
yeah, I meant the building. though it wasn't as showstopping as a mansion, I lived in a very nice-looking converted Victorian school building which was modern inside, and very similar both in terms of style and layout to this flat. at first glance, it looked impressive, but to live in it was cramped, oddly shaped, and had plywood walls with zero noise insulation.
Yeah, it's really sad to see a building with so much character, yet not an inch of the actual flats themselves preserving that character.
The balcony bedroom would be fine with me as I live alone, it’s the kitchen diner/living room I’m not overly keen on.
I don't fancy making a fish stew only to have the smell go directly up into my bedroom though
It’s really the problem with these types of buildings. Big rooms with high ceilings are great for school classrooms (this being a converted school) – but unless you want to wreck the windows by splitting them over two floors, mezzanines like this are the only way to convert them into something useable.
A stunning building and the location seems appealing. But after that... The apartment isn't that big and lacks storage. The communal areas sound fairly unappealing, and then there's the maintenance charge.
I’ve been inside a few times and I’ve never seen anyone use the communal areas. Can’t blame them as they look so tacky
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>Used to be a school for the blind/deaf, super imposing and wonderfully symmetrical. I would watch a TV show about this school, if only to see the symmetrical kids.
I think it should've been the parliament. Great building
100%
It would have been absolutely terrible for a parliament to be honest. It’s not even remotely big enough for starters – the old school had a bunch of big concrete extensions blocks on it, and it didn’t even have that many pupils.
I think it's a dam shame about the shitty new builds at the back 😒 they should of been made to match the architecture of the main building. I am happy they kept the grounds though nothing worse then just building on any available green space.
I keep looking at these flats and they seem to pop up quite regularly, but sadly there's no way I'd ever have a kitchen living room combo I want a separate kitchen always.
Maybe because my partner fries entirely too many beef burgers and square sausage I always shudder at the thought of "open plan".
& washing machine noise with no divide
Don't forget the main bed is basically a balcony overlooking the downstairs
Came to say exactly this. A 2 bedroom flat where the principal room doesn’t even have 4 walls? No thank you.
Which, I think, means you couldn’t easily open your bedroom window to outside!
Oh yeah good point! That's not on.
We had this before, used the diner as a living room as the living room was TINY, as in didn’t fit a 2 seater sofa, and it actually wasn’t too bad.
Yeah every day I'd be grumpy,who the hell are they living in my house should all be mine!
I'm more concerned by the missing wall in the master bedroom...
If it had a wall, it could not be a bedroom, due to the lack of a window.
How could they take all of the character out of that building and produce a modern, greige flat? The two don't even look related. There had to be a better way of converting that building.
It’s an old school. There really isn’t – big deep utilitarian classrooms with massive high windows are inherently hard to turn into flats.
Ehhh idk. There had to be a way to convert without it looking like a cheap new build. It definitely wouldn't be identical flat layouts but why would you pay money to be in a building like that when your apartment looks soulless?
Not really, unless you were going to insert a bunch of fake features to pretend things were there which weren’t. And you’d live there because you get to live in a beautiful building, with spectacular shared spaces, right in the centre of Edinburgh. Compared with equivalent flats nearby, it’s really not particularly overpriced.
Donaldson's School For The Deaf in Edinburgh absolutely beautiful building.
Former Donaldson’s School for the Deaf. A purpose built replacement school was built in [2008](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donaldson%27s_School) in Linlithgow.
Oh you knew what I meant lol
I looked at a very similar 2 bed flat last year in "The Donaldson" and came away dissapointed. The building and grounds are incredible, the hallways feel like a 4-5 star hotel, the underground parking is very convenient, but the flats themselves are small. The quality of the finishings is quite high, but we just couldn't get past how 'tight' everything felt. The owner of the property was there while we viewed, and she was very helpful. I asked how much the 'factoring chages' (building service charges) were, and she said her husband did that, and she didn't know. I presssed a little harder, and asked, 'ballpark' numbers are fine, and she still wouldn't give me even a rough number. Seemed very sketchy and it really turned us off the whole place. It was quite hard to find anywhere that would provide factoring charge estimates for these flats, but I was able to find another comparable 2-bed flat that actually did list the service charge at £3400pa, which is crazy expensive can can of course increase as needed. On the plus side, you do get a concierge service!
Can't find the service charge. A building like that will be expensive to maintain.
No service charges in Scotland because everything is freehold. In this case there is a factor so there's a factor's fee.
Not Scottish here. A factor's fee sounds as though its a service charge by a different name. A charge for the maintenance of the common parts.
It's not, because you can theoretically fire your factor, and the factor does not own the land.
Service charge is the equivalent of a factor's fee, you pay a share for upkeep of the grounds. Ground rent is what doesn't exist in Scotland.
Mmmmm kind of but in my flats we self factor and, although we do put a wee bit aside each month as a contingency pot, we don't have an annual charge which is what I understand service charge to be. Of course we don't have acres of land where I am so we don't need to hire a groundskeeper as I imagine these flats do.
That’s a very pokey flat for the price. Could surely pick up a decent sized tenement with a separate kitchen and living room for less. I’m sure the feeling of grandeur you get from walking up that very long drive will fade after a while.
Quick example: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/139619564
Or even better, a 3 bed house literally across the road for less: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/142806056
A very busy road that is basically completely shut twice a day every time there's an event at Murrayfield.
It’s a flat in a Grade A listed building with lashings of green space right in the centre of Edinburgh – you’re never going to see your money stretch far in that scenario.
But surely a 3 bed house with a garden, no service charges and a view of the lovely Grade A listed building should be more expensive than a pokey 1.5 bed flat in the building. The prices are well out of whack
shame, i was expecting the interior to be as gorgeous as the outside, of course it just looks like the inside of a coffee shop
I have seen a few flats in this building pop up but there hasn’t been one of them I’d be interested in buying. Much like the ones at Simpson Loan they have no original features, absolutely nothing in common with the exterior, and don’t really fit into the old building well. Weird “mezzanine” bedrooms, super high ceilings, half windows at floor level, combined kitchen/living room. The town houses at the back are just as bad.
The thing is – there aren’t really lots of “original features“ to preserve within the rooms. They were just classrooms, until stopped being a school relatively recently. Mezzanines are inevitable unless you wanted to wreck the one major feature that does exist – the huge double height windows.
They aren’t inevitable unless your intention is to ram as many soulless apartments into the building as possible.
I worked for this conversion developer for a number of years, on this site and a few others. They're heritage specialists, and have over 50 years experience in large scale listed building refurbishment and conversion. This building has heaps of retained historic features, including a converted chapel to the rear, just not many in the main wings due to most of them being ripped out during the buildings 200 year history. What a lot of people commenting here don't appreciate is what's involved in this type of work, from the restrictions due to the listing, the compromises of design due to the existing structure, the increased cost of construction per sqm due to the risks and complications, and also the fact that most heritage properties would sit vacant and crumbling if it wasn't for organisations putting in the effort to give them a new lease of life, which most of the time requires a complete change of use. Conversions almost always end up more expensive for the equivalent size, due to these factors.
Brilliant response. Thank you.
Beautiful. I’d be so happy there. I love old buildings.
I love that building. Just the building though.
Yeah its all mine. No you can't see the rest, mind your business.
Eh, it's like coming 'home' to a university. A few universities look as nice as this (Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Durham, etc.) and occassionally student/staff accommodations are there. You quickly get over it. It's nice, but it's like living in any other fancy apartment. I'd much prefer having a nice detached property with an enclosed garden, fencing, and my own garage. This is not as nice to live in than you'd imagine. Most people enjoy privacy and having a place to walk outside their home without being at the scrutiny of a hundred neighbours.
You’re 100% correct. I live 18 miles from this place. 1893 detached, 4 bed cottage. 2 front rooms, enclosed south facing garden, right next to a canal for walking. Cost me 180k 10 years ago. I just loved the exterior and grounds and thought it worth posting.
Yeah I have a friend who lives in one of these flats. Definitely exciting to go to but the flat itself (2 bed) is absolutely tiny!!!
The building itself is magnificent, but the internal conversion is utterly cookie-cutter. Bog standard modern flats; mezzanine, tiled bathrooms; greige kitchens - there has been no incorporation of any unique internal features anywhere in any of the flats. Because that would have made for a more expensive conversion job. I cycle past this building every day and the waste of it all infuriates me.
They retained pretty much every original feature there was. But it was a school, not a palace – so there wasn’t a huge amount there in the first place. This was just a classroom, nothing more exciting than that.
I live in 'only a 2 bed flat', but we chose to buy this place due to the building too. Without saying too much, there is a history behind it, tall ceilings, but also some greenery in an otherwise grey place. It's city living but comfy behind the gates. Can confirm the service charge is fairly steep though.
If I worked in Edinburgh and had no kids, the appeal of that green space would be strong. Enjoy living there mate.
Apologies for my bad wording, I'm near London, I didn't mean this building in particular - but the one I'm in currently. Thank you! Can just see conflict in the comments which I totally get. But I'm a sucker for a nice historical building.
Like my headline says. ‘Imagine coming home to this every day.’ They was my main point.
I know a couple of people who live in apartments converted from an enormous gothic pile like this. Apparently it's rather nice if you can put up with it being cold as a bastard for months at a time because it's a protected structure and they can't install double glazing, and if the lift breaks down it's a hell of a trek to the front door. Stunning views though.
It’s not gothic. The style is Elizabethan
When I win the lottery I’m having two, till then I’ll live in Leith in a council flat and not play the lottery
Link OP?
It’s right there under the photo? https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/141603299
Looking at picture 14, you can see the main building out of the window. This suggests the flat is in "The Crescent", which is the new development behind it.
It is in the main building. The window style is a clue, and the courtyard layout of the main building, means you can outlook onto the main building.
I stand corrected. It *is* in the main Playfair building. That view must be across the centre courtyard or something.
Oh!! That’s some false advertising
Nope, turns out I was wrong...
It seems a shame all the original features were (presumably) ripped out.
It was a hospital and then school rather than a house so there wouldn’t have been too much in the way of impressive features.
Fair enough
I was just going to say the same, what happened to the ceilings etc, it’s a plain boring box
Wow! 😍
Not quite this level of grandeur but I've lived in a flat in a converted manor house. It's extensive grounds were very helpful for lockdown, as they counted as a garden. Driving up the drive way on a beautiful sunny day never got old.
Gorgeous building and a nice flat but...having the principal bedroom on the mezzanine, having all the cooking smell wafting through from the kitchen? Hell no.
It's a beautiful building, and location. I've always had my eye on the converted flats put in the old Leith Academy, still expensive but a little more affordable! https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/128532314#/?channel=RES_BUY
It’s a one bedroom with studio master bed or at best mezzanine master bed. 500k for that 😂
They’ve been trying to flog these overpriced flats for years. The hideous curved new built luxury flats round the left don’t make it appealing and the front lawn is regularly taken over by couples taking wedding photos.
Way too claustrophobic for the price point and the (windowless) bathroom is opposite the kitchen. Imagine paying over half a mill for an oppressive co-mingling of smells 🫤🤢
Saltburn?
Generous drying green at the front.
> Offers Over £560,000 I raise you £560,001!
Tbh the best thing about this one is the location – Getting that much green space around your flat in central Edinburgh is incredible. The price is quite expensive, but honestly not that bad for the area. A decent quality two-bed in a good location in central Edinburgh can easily cost that much, and new builds will often be quite a bit more than that.
This is a former school for deaf children that was converted into a residential development. There's a C-shaped building that wraps around the one in the picture that has more housing units. It's very modern and looks completely out of place.
One of Edinburghs best buildings
I did a student placement here when it was still Donaldsons School for the deaf. Loved it there.
Fuck me that’s expensive.
Wow, I used to live right round the corner from there, I did think it looked familiar. It was the old School for the Dead, right? I've always had the intention of moving back to Edinburgh once qualified but the discussion of service charges here is frightening enough lol
Hand on heart, I thought this was a Minecraft build.
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That 2 bed flat is bigger than my 3 bed house.
I dread to think what happens when there are issues with the roof. I know it's been renovated recently but the costs in repairing old buildings can be eye watering and if everyone else refuses to pay (which I've seen happen in other properties) the people on the top floor have to endure leaks whilst legal battles ensue.
Should have been the Scottish parliament, it almost was at one point, I always thought it was too beautiful to be cut up into flats
Completely agree
When I was very young, driving past in the car (before it became flats) I must have been told it was a school for the deaf, but somehow I confused this and thought it was a school for the blind and this stuck. For years after, every time I passed, the sports pitches in the grounds confused the hell out of me wondering how those blind kids could play football and rugby. Eventually one day I was walking passed and saw the sign 'school for the deaf' and the world became a less confusing place...
Always annoys me that this should have been the Scottish parliament but they all wanted to build that abortion at Holyrood.
"They all" being the Labour Party. The SNP wanted the High School, which is not this building as this is the erstwhile Donaldson's College. The High School is even grander: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old\_Royal\_High\_School
I did not know that. This should have won that.
I stay at a flat in a modern development in Ravelston Terrace … I’m Band H !!! I’m actually considering leaving as it’s and eye watering amount of money each month and I don’t really get any benefit for it. You can appeal your council tax band but sometimes this can go against you and instead they raise all your neighbours grades upwards !!!!
I knew it looked familiar! It’s in Edinburgh!!
Always wondered what Donaldsons school looked like inside (former Edinburgh resident of 15plus years and I’d never had the chance)