Plans of house 1888/Help?

[FIRSTTIMEMUMMA81]

Hi Mumsnet,

I want to find the original plans of our house - built in 1888. Does anyone know how to do this?

This is in Scotland... not England.

Thanks,
FTM

Prior to the Town and Country Planning Act which came into force in England and Wales in 1946 there was no coherent planning regime. I'm not sure about Scotland but it's probably similar. Therefore, unless a house is of note then you are unlikely to be able to find plans - old ones may be in council archives and copies available for a fee.

That said, there are lots of resources online. We have an Edwardian house and the owners had the original scale plans of the ground floor which they left in the house when they sold to us. I stumbled upon the architect's drawing of the house on eBay when we were buying - it was featured in an architecture magazine at the time. If you can find out who the architects were there's a chance you can find something. If you can trace who lived in the house, particularly who it was built for, you can use Ancestry.com, etc to gather information. Your local history library may be worth a visit too.

If you're in Edinburgh you can request from the council Plan Store which stores everything from 1800 onwards. www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/20140/building_warrants/1490/building_standards_plan_store

There is a fee as they have to physically search through the archives and it can take a little while but they'll give you an A3 photocopy at the end.

Other local authorities may have similar stores.

Thanks Guys, they've asked me to pop in!