Eyre Place Properties, working with Mclaren Murdoch & Hamilton as architect, applied to demolish Smithies Ale House and replace it with a block of nine maisonettes and two flats alongside a shared garden. The pub has lain empty since 2020.

Papers that went before the council last week stated: “It is proposed to demolish the former ‘Smithies’ public house and clear the adjacent open space to accommodate the development of 11 flats and maisonettes with new garden ground and associated infrastructure.

“It is proposed to remove 22 trees and replant with two small rowan trees. Communal bin stores are located internally on ground floor. Air source heat pumps for each unit are proposed.”

An original application was amended to “add more articulation to the design of the proposed development and to break up the use of ashlar sandstone and render within the scheme”.

The papers also revealed: “The site is formed of two properties on the north west side of Eyre Place, the former Smithies public house a two storey building which has lain vacant since closing in March 2020 and an area of vacant land in the ownership of City Of Edinburgh Council that was previously occupied by two four storey residential tenement blocks.

“The combined site sits between the New Town and Canonmills areas, just outside the New Town Conservation Area, and to the South of the Inverleith Conservation Area.”

The application was recommended for approval by planners despite concerns about the loss of trees and a garden used by people living in a neighbouring tenement.

The committee voted 8-2 to grant planning permission and added a condition requiring the developers to submit a new landscaping plan with more “low level planting and shrubs” before work commences on site.