Remember me
Scotsman columnist Stephen Jardine called walking down the street a ‘fundamentally depressing experience’.
There have been new calls for a public summit on the future of Edinburgh’s Princes Street.
He wrote: “With hindsight, we took Princes Street for granted. Visitors to Edinburgh marvelled at the one of the world’s great boulevards but to us locals, it was just where you went to buy socks.
“Then the cracks started to develop. As retail went online, bricks and mortar units seemed to change hands more and more quickly. And then came Covid.
“I can’t remember the last time I walked the full length of Princes Street and doing it this week reminded me why. It’s a fundamentally depressing experience. Every block reverberates with what once was.”
The Princes Street and Waverley Valley Strategy, published in September last year, proposed increased pedestrian zones, tree-planting on the rood of Waverley Market, new access ramps into Princes Street Gardens and a footbridge across the Waverley Valley.
But it was slated for not offering more of a vision for the future of the famous thoroughfare.
And when Edinburgh’s planning committee was asked to endorse the strategy, councillors instead voted not to adopt it at this stage and agreed to bring together council officials, elected members and those with expertise to come up with a “more ambitious and exciting strategy”.
However, Jardine wrote, this workshop had an obvious admission from the list of attendees - the people of Edinburgh. He added that, since council tax payers would be footing the bill, the “very least” we can do is listen to residents about what they actually want from Princes Street.
Calls for public summit where ‘all views can be platformed’
He added: “As part of the Cockburn’s 150th anniversary events, we are offering to organise a civic conversation to share views and help steer Princes Street in a new direction. Another plan driven by expensive consultants’ fees will only create division and stasis.
“What’s needed is a public summit where all views can be platformed and taken on board, feeding into a vision big enough to match the grandeur of the street itself. Isn’t that the least Princes Street deserves?”
Former City of Edinburgh council leader Donald Anderson agreed a public debate is needed, but said that getting everyone to agree there is something wrong in Princes Street is “a lot easier than getting people to agree on a solution”.
“I’m not sure how that public debate should be conducted but we need to have that public debate, it needs to be inclusive, and the public need to have a say,” he added.
“My only cautionary note that I’d sound about the debate on Princes Street is how long is it going to take?
“In my 21 years on the council, I was only involved in one major redevelopment. If you look at what’s happened recently, the change of pace has been phenomenal.”
Jenners department store in Princes Street Edinburgh - Balconies and well“When I went as a child to see my mum who worked in Jenners, Princes Street was the shopping street,” he added.
“For a kid from a council estate, it was really life enriching to go into Princes Street and to spend some time there.
‘Princes Street will be good example of how High Streets can be reborn’
“The department stores have now gone, every High Street in the UK is suffering from the decline of retail sales and the change to online retail.
“And Princes Street is, I think, going to be a good example of how High Streets can be reborn.”