Designating former Lads' Institute, Ratcliffe Terrace, Edinburgh

From 5 March 2025 to 2 April 2026, Historic Environment Scotland (HES) sought views on a proposal to list the former Lads’ Institute (27-29 Ratcliffe Terrace), Edinburgh.

The former Lads’ Institute at 27-29 Ratcliffe Terrace, Edinburgh was designed and built between 1906-07 by James Linton Lawrence and Victor ‘Spig’ Spiganovicz. The building’s notable Arts and Crafts design is representative of the style and is little altered. The interior also retains some good design features from the early 20th century. As a purpose-built Lads’ Institute, it is a rare example of its building type.

Only a very small number are known to have been built, most dating to the early 20th century. Lads’ Institutes were set up as recreational and sports clubs in the early 20th century to cater specifically to younger boys who were not settling into the school system. Only a few purpose-built premises for such organisations were ever built throughout Britain

Through Citizen Space, we invited members of the public to tell us if they agreed with the proposed designation and if they had further comments to make.

We consulted directly with City of Edinburgh Council as the planning authority and the owners, site developers and their respective agents.

Our selection guidance for designation and the policies we work to are published in the Designations Policy and Selection Guidance document. 

We received a total of 45 responses, including five written responses. There were 18 detailed responses to our online survey.

Around 98% of people who responded strongly agreed or slightly agreed with the designation proposal and around 2% strongly disagreed.

Several comments in favour of listing commended the building’s design, in particular the quality of the Arts and Crafts detail and styling. Some comments noted the building’s social historical value to the area and the historically important link with its philanthropist creator Victor ‘Spig’ Spiganovicz.

Responses against listing noted that the building had little architectural merit and that an accumulation of changes to the building had eroded the architectural interest, suggesting that recording rather than statutory listing should be considered.

There was a range of comments related to the building’s condition and economic factors related to future development.

We have considered the comments made to us in consultation and our view remains that the building meets the listing criteria interest. We have however updated the assessment to reflect some of the detailed comments about the interior and the setting. We have also added a statutory exclusion to part of the site.

We have taken into account the determining factors related to special architectural or historic interest and have found that that there are no policy or other factors that suggest we should not list the building.

We have now designated the former Lads’ Institute at Category C (LB52684). You can view the listed building record on our portal.  

We have published a consultation summary, the statistics and responses. Comments from the online survey are published in full (where we have appropriate permissions).

All of the relevant reports can be downloaded below:

• Report of Handling
• Consultation Summary Report
• Listing Map