Princes Street is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, and its main shopping street. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, stretching around 1 mile (1.6 km) from Lothian Road in the west to Leith Street in the east. The street is mostly closed to private cars, with public transport given priority. The street has virtually no buildings on the south side, allowing panoramic views of the Old Town, Edinburgh Castle, and the valley between.
Only the east end of the street is open to all traffic. The bulk of the street is limited to buses and taxis only. During 2009 parts of the street were closed to all traffic as part of the Edinburgh Trams construction works.
Contents |
The street is named Princes Street after King George III's two eldest sons, the Prince George, Duke of Rothesay (later King George IV) and the Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany.
It was laid out according to formal plans for Edinburgh's New Town, now known as the First New Town. These were devised by the architect James Craig and building began around 1760. Princes Street represented a critical part of the plan, being the outer edge, facing Edinburgh Castle and the original city:"Edinburgh Old Town". Originally all buildings had the same format: set back from the street with stairs down to a basement and stairs up to the ground floor. Heights were generally three storeys plus an attic. Of this original format only one such property remains in its original form. Through the 19th century most buildings were redeveloped at a larger scale and the street evolved from residential to mainly retail uses. In the 1960s a "Princes Street Plan" was proposed, removing all buildings and replacing them with a pro-forma pattern building with first level walkway, theoretically doubling the shopping frontage. The plan was partially put into operation, resulting in a very mixed character to the street. Ironically several of the new buildings, executed in a brutalist style, are now listed buildings.
During the construction of the New Town, the polluted waters of the Nor Loch were drained, and the area was converted into private gardens called Princes Street Gardens. This was taken over by the Edinburgh Council in the late 19th century, by which time most of the street was commercial and there was no great need for private residential gardens. The width of Princes Street was greatly increased soon after, onto what was the northern edge of the gardens. Due to the much lower position of the gardens this led to the creation of the steep embankment on the north side, still visible today. The gardens are one of the many green spaces in the heart of Edinburgh.
The wider George Street (parallel to Princes Street) was originally intended to be the main commercial street and major thoroughfare, but its neighbour to the south overtook it due to its breathtaking views over the Gardens and to the Old Town. Ironically, in recent years this commercial superiority is beginning to materialise.
Several UK high street brands are located along Princes Street. Bhs, Debenhams, House of Fraser, Marks & Spencer, Topman and Topshop department stores can be found at the west end. Jenners (Now owned by House of Fraser) department store was an Edinburgh institution, surviving the disappearance of many other local department stores, such as Patrick Thompson's. There has been controversy over buildings from the later half of the 20th century on Princes Street.[1] This has prompted plans to demolish the Bhs and the Marks & Spencer buildings, in an effort to improve the status of the street.[2] Another problem has been that upper floors are often used for storage, rather than as office, retail or living space. At an early stage in post-World War II designs for the street, a "high level walkway" was planned, as a further shopping frontage for the first floor level, in lieu of the other side of the street. However the walkway as built was never more than a number of isolated balconies and in practice the Royal Bank of Scotland was the only business to maintain a frontage at this level for any length of time; that branch of the bank closed early in the 21st century, leaving the upper walkway largely forgotten.
The Gardens contain the Ross Bandstand (an open-air theatre), a war memorial to U.S. soldiers of Scottish descent and a floral clock, together with other attractions. Two of the main Scottish art galleries, the Royal Scottish Academy and the National Gallery of Scotland, are located at the foot of The Mound. Further along is the Scott Monument, a huge intricate Gothic monument dedicated to Sir Walter Scott, the author of the Waverley Novels, after which is named Waverley station, which lies at the east end of the Gardens, its westward lines dividing them. Next to the station on its north side is the former railway hotel, previously known as the North British Hotel, latterly renamed the Balmoral Hotel, and the North Bridge which sails at high level over the station. The hotel has a counterpart at the extreme west end of Princes Street. The Caledonian Hotel, now the Caledonian Hilton,[3] sits at the north end of Lothian Road. This was built by the Caledonian Railway for their Princes Street Station which closed in the 1960s along with the lines it served.
At the west end of Princes Street, St. John's Episcopal Church at the corner of Lothian Road is built at street level above a basement crypt and a small churchyard.[4] In addition, there are several fair trade outlets in this space as part of the church, whilst St Cuthbert's Church stands just to the south of it, in a far larger and older churchyard, west of the gardens.
Princes Street remains popular, although it has now fallen from its status as the most expensive place to rent shop space in Britain outside London.[5] Princes Street may be one of the few streets in the UK to have an order of Parliament placed on it to prevent any further building on the south side, so as to preserve its open vista.