Falkland Activity Centre

 

External Views of Existing Building

 

OK – if you cross the road from the Western General and walk north down Crewe Road South (if that makes sense) then you will be met with this view of the main entrance to the building. Ignore the pitched roofing – that belongs to the buildings behind. The structure in question is flat-roofed.

 

 

Viewed from further down the pavement, the opposite corner looks like this. The fifth of the glass panels (the purple one) clearly says “Can you see yourself living here?” The handsome chap in the picture clearly can – he is already sneaking round the back to claim ownership.

 

 

The view from the car park (which is at a lower level) looks like this. As the sign above the door says, this is the marketing suite. This half of the building contains sales and marketing offices and display space.

 

 

That is the extent of the interesting external facades. There are four sections of about ten feet each in the view above – that is how each of the sections can be transported on a forty foot trailer. This side with the entrance has two solid sections and two glassed (or door) sections. The main frontage to the street has five floor-to-ceiling windowed sections and the last one on the right is solid.

 

The left half of the building as you look at it from the street contains some support for the sales and marketing office space – a kitchen, toilet, storage area and fire escape. The rest of it is a ‘show home’ in the shape of a 2-bedroom flat complete with en-suite, bathroom, lounge/dining area, hallway and fully fitted kitchen. On the left is a view into the lounge area from outside.

 

               

 

On the right is a view into the dining area which happens to include a couple of our ‘New Clubhouse’ sub-committee members and an old, retired member of FCC surveying the building thoroughly.

 

As you can see from the two photographs below, the other two external walls are a lot less interesting. There is no feature at all in the north side wall.

 

               

 

The only features in the back (east) wall are the fire escape and the open space between the two major sections containing the air conditioning compressors.

 

               

 

In terms of security the building is pretty sound – it has to be to have survived in the middle of Edinburgh. The roof trim is the shape it is because it houses the roller shutter doors that protect the glassed panels and the main entrance. All the roller shutters are motorised. The one for the main door section is key-activated. I am not so sure about the others. I know they are operated internally but I am not sure if it is by key or just a button.

 

Here are pictures of the two main facades with the roller shutters closed.

 

               

 

You get access to the building by ascending the ramp which has a solid decking base and good strong handrails. The ramp (or at least the materials to rebuild it) will be included in what we transport to Falkland. You can see the box to the left of the door where the key is used to open the roller shutter. I don’t know if the alarm system suggested by the box in the top right-hand corner of the left picture above actually exists. It may be just a dummy box. There is another identical box in the middle of the dummy section (front). There is also a surveillance camera looking down the entrance ramp, but I am pretty sure that this will disappear with the computers and other office equipment before we get the building.

 

                                                  

 

To see photographs of the inside of the building you will have to navigate to the next page. You are currently on the ‘External Views’ page of the ‘Existing Building’ section, therefore you have to click on the ‘Internal Views’ link below to get to the next page.

 

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