86-88 High Street is a Category C listed burgage property fronting the west side of Dunbar’s principal historic thoroughfare. A lack of maintenance, and series of insensitive alterations, left the building a perilous condition and in desperate need of repair.

The Ridge, a Dunbar based charity, saw the opportunity to bring this building back into active use to meet local needs. The charity's own social enterprise construction company is carrying out much of the restoration works, training local people in traditional skills.

The proposals will reinstate the common stair, allowing the previously derelict upper floors to return to residential use. The ground floor will be divided into two different uses; a retail frontage to the High Street and office space within the rear outshot. New build terraced social housing is proposed at the rear of the plot, accessed form the narrow close running through the plot. The income generated from the residential and commercial units will help support the charity’s day-to-day operations and future projects.

The scheme at 86-88 High Street is part of the client’s wider plan to regenerate derelict historic sites across the Dunbar Conservation Area, utilising the learning from each, to inform the next.