Edinburgh's Princes Street is a fundamentally depressing experience. Here's what we need to do to fix it
Edinburgh needs to hold a public summit to develop a vision for Princes Street that’s big enough to match its grandeur
In the words of Joni Mitchell, you don't know what you've got till it's gone. 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.
Frasers, Littlewoods, HMV, British Home Stores, Debenhams the Virgin megastore and John Menzies have all been and gone. Instead we have an endless parade of phone and vape shops and a general sense that the best days are in the past.
Glimmers of hope
You only have to pause and look at it carefully to realise Princes Street is special. It’s our Madison Avenue or Champs Elysees with an outlook that thrills New Yorkers and Parisians alike.
That’s something the retail decline cannot change. And there are glimmers of hope. The Johnnie Walker Experience and the Jenners site’s exciting redevelopment proves Edinburgh still has the ability to provide an environment where businesses can thrive, but we need to get the reinvention right to make sure the best kind of investment follows.
Last month the latest Princes Street plan was shelved by Edinburgh councillors who called for a more ambitious and exciting strategy.
Some want a radical vision as proposed by architect Richard Murphy, who suggested revised traffic flows and opening up the gardens. Others want a light-touch approach, fearing that, following the disruption of the trams project, more major upheaval would just drive people away and add to the problems.
What’s certain is that no amount of street furniture or carriageway realignment is going to alter the fundamentals. People are pulled to Princes Street by the views but pushed away by dismal retail and weather that makes sitting outside sipping a cappuccino attractive but impractical.
Voice of the people
Rejecting city officials’ latest plan, councillors voted "to convene an elected member/officer/stakeholder workshop that brings together those with transport, culture, heritage and placemaking expertise so a more ambitious and exciting strategy can be brought forward for approval".
There is only one very obvious admission from that list – the people of Edinburgh. Since council tax payers will foot the bill for it, the very least the members/officers/stakeholders can do is listen to residents about what they actually want from Princes Street.
Earlier this year I became president of the Cockburn Association, Scotland’s oldest conservation charity. It exists to preserve and fight for Edinburgh’s built heritage but equally to help ensure it has a viable future.
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?
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