24 October 2005

Another mall for Princes St

From BBC news: [Edinburgh] City centre revamp plan unveiled.

What Princes St needs is not a facelift but a face transplant. There's nothing to distinguish it as a unique high street; it's chockablock with the standard, national high street chains. Apart from Jenners, there's nothing to set it apart from any other British city's shopping street. And unlike Glasgow's Buchannan St and environs, it's not shopper-friendly and could do with being "pedestrianised". Unfortunately, it is still a major East-West artery road and the North-South main roads also cross it at some point. A solution may not exist (unless all traffic is routed around the city centre and delivery trucks are restricted to early/late hours only). That said, it'd be nice to get rid of some of those concrete monstrosities. Although I suspect any replacement buildings will be equally hated in a decade or so.

1 comment:

akatsukira said...

It's big, that's true. And having Princes St Gardens and the castle on the other side makes coming out of the shops a unique experience. (It'd be nicer without the traffic though).

Still think most of the shops are a waste of space... But tt's just cos I'm a provincial oik who wants everyone to browse in small bookshops and buy their one-off customised clothes from a lovely couple who make them in the backroom...

Agreed on Princes Mall. Anyone who can achieve that gets my vote the next local election...