Plans lodged to the City of Edinburgh Council propose to knock down the Northfield House Hotel on Lasswade Road, Liberton to allow for 103 beds with associated facilities to be introduced.

The unlisted hotel dates from 1870 and has been closed since the coronavirus outbreak.

The design statement by 56Three Architects said: “This site addresses the recent move led by the University of Edinburgh to decentralise student accommodation and is thus well located to provide sustainable travel options and short trip solutions for residents to facilitate their studies.

“The proposal looks to provide a mix of studio apartments and accessible studios offering varying pricing structures and affordability.”

It added: “The hotel is currently closed but was previously operating on an ad hoc basis for private functions prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The owners have reviewed the business model for the hotel and have concluded that the retention of the existing house is not viable.

“The inflexibility of the existing house does not lend itself to suitable conversion to provide sufficient, modern facilities to be competitive within the Edinburgh service industry.

“The proposal is to demolish the house to make way for a new purpose built development.

“The house is not listed and there is limited architectural merit to warrant retention.”

In a statement by Scott Hobbs Planning on behalf of Audley (Edinburgh) Ltd it said the applicant had engaged in pre-application discussions with the council and “the proposal has been designed to take account of feedback received during the pre-application stage”.