Latest news with #EricMelvin
The Herald Scotland
03-06-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
How Princes Street lost its crown — and might win it back
Sitting in between us and ready to chime in is local historian Eric Melvin — around 25 years her senior, sporting a well-groomed moustache and a flat cap. We've met to discuss the evolution of this once-great street, and I soon find there's no shortage of musings on his part. 'Princes Street should be one of the finest retail streets in the world,' he says, before recounting the halcyon days of his youth: 'wonderful' department stores, two cinemas, 'classy' tea rooms, and the sound of 'tinkling' pianos. Woolworths, now the Apple Store at the east end, was the 'only sort of cheap store, but a very classy cheap store'. With a deep sigh, the softly spoken but sharply opinionated retired headteacher is transported back to the present. 'And it's just degenerated,' he gestures westward. 'You've got a rash of empty properties or work being done on properties and you've got all these wretched, cheap souvenir shops which are mostly selling tacky stuff made in India and China.' A vacant unit on Edinburgh's Princes Street (Image: Colin Mearns) I'm curious to know what Melvin, who leads historical tours of the city centre, tells groups when he brings them here. 'Well, you apologise in a sense.' His rose-tinted vision of what the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town once was - and should be again - is a sentiment commonly held among those who witnessed its golden age, and latterly its decline. For this nostalgic cohort, the bad news is this version of Princes Street isn't coming back. The good news, however, is that a rebirth is well underway which, to some with a keen interest in the fate of this thoroughfare, signals the dawn of a second golden age. Earlier on, I was standing outside a scaffolding-clad building about half way down the street currently being redeveloped. Tilting my head back and squinting up at the sheets of white tarpaulin covering the temporary structure flapping in the light south-westerly breeze and reflecting the crisp sunlight, I try - with little luck - to imagine what those glory days looked like. At 28, the only thing I've ever found exceptional about Princes Street is its view of the Castle and Edinburgh's historic Old Town. But then again, that's always been its defining feature. The most recent occupants of the three ground floor units here - Next, Zara and Russel & Bromley - have all moved to the St James Quarter, the designer brand mecca built half a mile to the east which opened in 2021. Now this is in the process of being demolished and rebuilt as a 347-room hotel, with the street level units remaining in retail use. Read more from The Herald's Future of Edinburgh series: The closure of city centre department stores over the last decade - accelerated by the pandemic, the St James Quarter's development and growth of retail on George Street - triggered something of an identity crisis for Princes Street. I call up Leigh Sparks, professor of retail studies at the University of Stirling, who tells me: 'You've got to look at the changes in Princes Street as the culmination of pull from other areas but also the change — the push that's occurred in terms of the way retail has changed over the last 25, 30 years. 'If you look back and think about even the development of Jenners, the redevelopment of Jenners 100 odd years ago and the number of department stores and big stores that were on there, Princes Street was the street at the heart of the city, there's no doubt about that. Add to that the train links when you had both Waverley and Caledonian station as well. It is the core of what the city has been. 'But the city has grown, the populations have changed, the opportunities elsewhere and what people want are very different. What people want out of Princes Street and shopping generally has altered. The nostalgic look of going back to what the place was like a long while ago I think doesn't really help much.' The rebirth of iconic department store Jenners as a hotel and retail mixed use development, expected to open in 2027, is a turning point for Princes Street after years of decline (Image: Colin Mearns) City Centre councillor Jo Mowat also remembers the 'excitement and the glamor of department stores' but agrees they're now mostly consigned to the history books. 'We remember our childhood, we remember with nostalgia what it was like,' she says. 'That has all gone, but also the town centre type of shopping experience that you had, which is very rare these days.' The big changes on Princes Street can be traced back to the tail end of the 2010s, adds Roddy Smith, chief executive of Essential Edinburgh, the organisation that manages the Edinburgh New Town city centre Business Improvement District. 'Two things were really happening then, one was that bricks and mortar retail was changing because big retailers don't want the old rabbit warren department stores. And you had the global online shopping stuff going on and in Edinburgh's case you had the demolition of the St James Centre and the coming out of the ground of the St James Quarter. 'So you had this perfect storm of change that was happening. Then House of Fraser shuts down, Debenhams shuts down, British Home Stores shuts down, Topshop shuts down, and Jenners shuts down. Now you've got a situation where the retail in the city is spread over a much wider area. 'Then the question is what the hell do you do with Princes Street?' It was this existential question that led council leaders to change planning rules in early 2020 to support a broader mix of retail and non-retail uses along the street. This move, says former council leader Donald Anderson, was 'absolutely critical'. In the years since, an estimated £1.7 billion has been invested in Princes Street, including £150m to transform House of Frasers into the Johnnie Walker Experience and the ongoing £48m renovation of landmark department store Jenners, which will reopen as a luxury hotel and retail development in 2027. British Homes Stores, the first of the department stores to shut in 2016, is now occupied by Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo after sitting empty for seven years. Jenners department store will reopen as a hotel (Image: David Chipperfield Architects) Debenhams closed in 2021 and was replaced at ground level by a souvenir shop, candy store and Harry Potter merchandise retailer, which was seen as emblematic of the street's downfall. However, plans were approved in March to turn the building into a hotel with 670 beds in total, including 345 'capsules' which offer a cheaper option to visitors than typical hotel rooms. Topshop on the corner of South St Andrew Street, which closed amid lockdown in 2021, is also set to become a hotel with shops on the lower levels after proposals were greenlit by councillors earlier this year. While the shift to hospitality and leisure is progressing at pace, the popularity of Uniqlo and recent arrival of Chinese goods retailer Miniso suggest that Princes Street still has potential as a mainstream retail destination — albeit a very different one than in its department store heyday. Meanwhile, vacancy rates are reportedly at their lowest in 25 years, with council figures showing that Empty Property Relief had been applied to 34 properties as of April. Along the street, I found just three commercial units up for sale in May. The relaxation of planning guidance, to allow up to one third of the total number of units on each block to be in non-shop use at ground floor, paved the way for more food and drink outlets. Blank Street Coffee, Bar and Block Steakhouse and two Black Sheep Coffee have since moved into former retail units. Planning permission has been approved for Edinburgh Woolen Mill, another victim of the Coronavirus pandemic, to become a restaurant, with property put on the market in February. Anderson now confidently believes Princes Street 'is fixed'. 'It doesn't look fixed because there's scaffolding plastered all over it,' he says. 'But in a sense that shows that things are being done and the regeneration is in train.' More on The Future of Edinburgh: But according to the Cockburn Association, Edinburgh's civic trust, this shift away from retail 'threatens the street's vitality, particularly at its western end, where vacant premises and lower-tier offerings are becoming entrenched'. The organisation's past chair, Cliff Hague, warns without 'robust intervention', Princes Street 'risks transforming into a corridor of mid-market hotels, global fast-food chains, and uninspired retail, with diminished upper-floor activity'. And so attention is now turning to what happens to the vacant store rooms and offices in a large number of the upper floors. 'It cannot just be retail, no one wants it as just hotels,' Smith says. 'Entertainment I personally would like to see, maybe a couple of standalone bars, whether it's a music venue or comedy club. 'A few weeks ago I walked along Princes Street at 11 o'clock at night and it's like a ghost town, no one is there - there's nothing there for people to do. I think that will change over time once these hotels become operational. We've got probably just over 2,000 hotel beds opening in the city centre in the next couple of years, we'll have all these people sleeping in the city centre who will all go out, eat, drink and socialise. 'People want to harp back to Princes Street being the retail centre of the city. That's long gone. 'That's just gone; Princes Street is now very much going to be mixed use hospitality, hotels. Hopefully some good quality retailers are going to come in on the ground floors, because all these hotels on the ground floor are going to have some retail element. Then above you're looking at bars, restaurants, hotels. That will hopefully bring life to Princes Street.' For Councillor Mowat, who has represented the city centre for over 15 years, the changing nature of the street is creating a more vibrant and safer place. 'The problem we used to have with Princes Street that we talked about was that it died at five o'clock until the night time economy got going' she says. 'If you were coming back from a meeting after dark for six months of the year anything after an early evening meeting it was a bit intimidating walking down Princes Street because there was no one there, in my experience of doing it as a woman. Princes Street's problem lies as much in its neglected streetscape as it does its shop units (Image: Colin Mearns) 'So that problem is in the process of being fixed and it doesn't feel like that anymore. But that comes with a whole load of other issues people raise. I think with the changing pattern there is more activity on the street for longer, this improves the feeling of safety. Quite often they turn the lights off in retail premises in the evening, so now you've got some restaurants along there, they are lit up so it just feels busier and brighter.' Back on the bench, Melvin is giving chapter and verse on the creation of Edinburgh's New Town. 'It's a celebration of the Act of Union and the House of Hanover. Queen Street is named after the Queen. Edinburgh proposed that what is now Princes Street was to be St Giles' Street, after one of Edinburgh's two patron saints. But when the plan was presented to the King for approval, the story is he threw it on the ground and said 'no, no!' because St Giles was the patron saint of prostitutes.' He produces a copy of Alexander Naysmith's stunning painting of Princes Street and the view toward the Old Town in 1822. 'They've just started work on what's now the Royal Scottish Academy building, ' he says. 'You can see Waverley Bridge was an early earth mound with the spoil from around St Andrew Square.' He pulls out another piece of laminated paper from his folder. 'I found a very interesting advert, this is the 1780s, there's a house on Princes Street which is able to be converted into shops, a tavern or a coffee room. People are seeing the commercial potential of the street level premises.' I ask if he's encouraged by the recent flow of investment in the street, marking a renewal of its commercial potential. 'You've got this Japanese store which is very popular in Tokyo,' he replies. 'Jenners is coming back. But where you've got these tacky shops or sweetie shops they could easily be exclusively selling decent heritage stuff being manufactured locally.' The chatty English tourist who's joined our conversation agrees. 'I was expecting bespoke Scottish goods,' she says. 'Genuine Scottish Wear that's actually produced, made by those people. People on the islands and stuff like that.' As for the future, Melvin says the vision has to be realistic. 'It would be possible to consider George Street and St James Quarter the designer places, whereas this is more focusing on the best of Scotland, eating and drinking as well. 'There's not a single Scottish food outlet here, not one. We just simply don't sell ourself.' We part ways and I merge with a steady stream of pedestrians heading east. After crossing the Waverley Bridge I stop near the entrance to the train station. Here, on the roof of the underground Waverley Market in one of the busiest spots of the city centre, lies a patch of barren, fenced-off public space. It dawns on me it's been well over a year since the outdoor bars, seating and performance area which previously occupied this prime spot were ordered to be removed by the council, on account of the 'poor-quality design" and "detrimental impact on the 'character and appearance of the New and Old Town conservation areas'. Councillors, who had the final say, said it was "not good enough for one of the number one cities in the world". Public space on Waverley Market's rooftop has been fenced-off for over a year (Image: Colin Mearns) Although this land is owned by the shopping centre, not the council, there has been a glaring lack of initiative from the local authority to put it to use since demanding it be cleared. It may be depressing and painfully underutilised, but the state of this space is consistent with much of Princes Street's public realm. Along the half-mile stretch between the West End and Leith Street, paving stones are cracked and spotted with blackened chewing gum. The street is marred by cluttered pavements, oversized bus stops and, crucially, lacking places to sit and take in the world-class vista of Edinburgh Castle and the Old Town's skyline. Once the grand civic heart of Edinburgh, this has become a place people pass through rather than one they visit. Mowat knows this all too well. 'It's physically quite a degraded environment,' she tells me. 'I walk along it most days from east to west. There's pavements broken, you can't cross the road; this is supposed to be our most accessible street in Edinburgh. You would take your life in your hands pushing a pram across and it would be really uncomfortable for someone in a wheelchair crossing because it's so pitted and rotted. 'We haven't done efficient and effective maintenance of the street and the streetscape, but where else do we do that in Edinburgh? It's very hard to pick where you would start. I don't think we've done a good enough job. We haven't focused on the basics, basic road maintenance and cleaning. 'We've been scratching our heads about what to do with Princes Street because it's a big long street so it becomes expensive the minute you look at doing it. You're always waiting for the next big idea and hoping it will come along. 'When I first started as a councillor in 2007 one of the first things I came across was the String of Pearls, which was this plan for a regeneration of Princes Street. And it was on a block-by-block basis. 'It was, some people call it master planning, other people call it fantasy planning. 'That conversation has been going on as long as I've been a councillor, and actually longer than that because we had the galleries plan in Princes Street Gardens to increase shopping floor plans. 'The reality is because we don't own Princes Street and it's in multiple ownerships, we're always going to be at the mercy of other peoples' ideas and plans and what is going to happen.' The council's latest bid to seize the initiative came in the form of a public consultation on 'Princes Street and the Waverley Valley' which concluded in February. This collected views on plans to 'renew buildings with a mix of retail and leisure uses, improve pavements and public spaces, manage change to Princes Street Gardens and its facilities and shape the future of Waverley Station and the area around it'. A masterplan approved by councillors includes additional ramp access to Princes Street Gardens, a new footbridge over the Waverley Valley, improved crossing and pedestrian improvements to Castle Street, the Mound Precinct, and Waverley Bridge. It also proposes footway widening at the east end, bespoke seating and encouraging developers to have temporary pop-up uses for premises. The council is due to finalise the strategy later this year. A visualisation from the council's Princes Street strategy showing the public space outside General Register House at the east end (Image: City of Edinburgh Council) However, the draft strategy has been criticised for lacking ambition for Princes Street to 'restore its prestige, build on its heritage and pursue developments that embody the highest standards of urban design'. A scathing joint response from The New Town & Broughton, Old Town, and West End Community Councils said the street had 'become an embarrassment for residents and visitors alike' and was badly in need of a plan for ongoing regeneration and restoration, but that the council's vision fell short of what was required. 'The draft strategy fails to address the needs of the street. Indeed, we contend that it contains no vision, and hence fails to qualify as a strategy,' a statement read. 'Instead, we find nothing more than a shopping list of generic urban planning measures. 'There is no meaningful prioritisation of the competing demands of retail and hotels, or heritage and development, vibrancy and the natural environment, transport and tourism, pedestrian and cycling space, through traffic and destination traffic, buses and trams. 'We need a better grasp of the likely commercial future for Princes Street and incorporate this into the strategy to promote sympathetic developments, while considering the impact on the rest of the city centre. 'We need to engage professionals with imagination and insight to develop a vision for Princes Street – ideally through competition – to reclaim its place as one of the world's great thoroughfares.' The response prompted Richard Murphy, one of Scotland's leading architects, to draw up his own vision for Princes Street and the adjacent gardens, he says, "to assist the debate". Murphy's plan includes significantly extending pavements on either side out to the tram lines and embellishing the south footpath with Portuguese-style mosaic tiles, closing the junction at Frederick Street to traffic, adding a cycle path, and introducing a 'parade of restaurants' below in the gardens. He argues the railings separating the street and gardens, which he dismisses as an 'anachronism dating back to when the gardens were private for the residents', should be removed and the gardens accessible 24 hours a day. Richard Murphy's vision for Princes Street (Image: Richard Murphy, Cameron Duncan, Calum Dalgety) 'They asked for a vision and we gave them a vision, I haven't seen anybody else's vision,' Murphy says. 'You can't tinker, it has to be rethought completely. The trouble is with Edinburgh, people hate that approach. They just get so frightened about everything. 'I don't think from a heritage point of view there's much of a conversation, really, unless people want to be desperately precious about hanging onto some 1930's shelters or something in the gardens, which is pathetic. Seriously, what is the problem with developing the gardens, having them open all night, lighting them and making them a place you want to go to?' He notes there are currently 39 bus lines that each stop at one of six bus stops between Hanover Street and South Charlotte Street, creating the risk of a perception from pedestrians 'of constant bus traffic'. Pushing this further away, he says, 'might help in this regard'. Murphy adds bus stops should be concentrated around the Frederick Street and Castle Street junctions. Professor Sparks backs going a step further and reducing the number of bus services routed along Princes Street. 'I certainly think that is needed, if you're going to make that street more pedestrian friendly you're going to have to take some of that traffic out,' he says of the idea. 'All of those buses, it just clogs the place up and it doesn't make it as friendly a place for pedestrians as it could be. And also because of the volume of them means there's a barrier to the gardens, both in crossing but also where the bus stances are on that other side means there's an awful lot of people standing around at times. So it's about thinking how people use it, what it's there for, how you move people around. 'The nostalgic view of what [Princes Street] was like would have occurred when we probably had about 10 percent of the number of cars we've got now. If you look at Oxford Street in London it's exactly the same issue, you've got thoroughfares that people want to be part of a pedestrian, visitor, resident type of behavior. But it's stymied by the fact we've got all these transport links running down.' While the city isn't lacking potential strategies, opinions and glossy visualisations of how Princes Street's tired public realm could be refreshed, it's no secret that it is short on cash to fund what would be extensive capital works. That will all change, city leaders claim, once income generated by the new visitor levy starts making its way into the council's coffers, estimated at up to £50m a year by 2028. In an interview in her office at the City Chambers, Edinburgh Council leader Jane Meagher tells me Princes Street is at the top of the list for investment from the Transient Visitor Levy (TVL). 'I think it would be hard not to justify something to be done on Princes Street,' she says. 'I would definitely anticipate that would be a major priority. Everybody wants to see that fantastic view of the castle and the skyline and it's truly remarkable.' Senior officers are working to bring forward proposals via the new Visitor Levy Forum to councillors later in the year on the first tranche of investment. Issues of the quality of the public realm in the city centre, from graffiti removal to more substantive works like the quality of Princes Street, will be considered as first priority, they say. However Meagher acknowledges the reality that the anticipated and much-needed additional funding from taxing overnight stays in the capital 'has been spent many, many times over in people's imaginations' and is far from limitless. For Councillor Mowat, the long-awaited 'tourist tax' is unlikely to be the silver bullet for Princes Street that many are hoping for. 'TVL money is being talked up but in the grand scheme of the council budget it's not a huge amount, and there's so many calls on it,' she says. 'I think people are expecting miracles from what is quite a limited fund. I think we have to temper our expectations. 'We would be much better focusing on how we can spend the budget we have most effectively and efficiently and that does mean general maintenance.' Donald Anderson, who was the city council leader from 1999-2006 and now works as a planning consultant, is more optimistic. 'You've got hotels replacing all the department stores that were emptied after the downturn in retail caused by the revolution in internet sales,' he says. An ex Edinburgh Council leader believes Princes Street's best days are ahead (Image: Colin Mearns) 'But you've also got the council allocating money from the tourism levy to transform the physical environment on Princes Street, so the pavements and the road will look a lot, lot better at the end of that process. 'That's absolutely what the tourism levy is for, it's to make that kind of difference to important public spaces that help identify and personify the city. 'It will change. I don't know exactly what the council is going to do but if they widen and improve the pavements and make it more pedestrian-friendly and renew everything, it will be a fabulous experience.' But it won't happen overnight. 'Time will fix things,' he adds. 'I actually think the best years for Princes Street are ahead of it.'
The Herald Scotland
30-04-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
We must start charging for our museums and galleries
The loss of potential income from this misguided policy is staggering. In 2024, over two million people visited the National Museum of Scotland; 1.2 million went to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum while 816,000 visited the City of Edinburgh Galleries and Museums. With a charge of just £10 per adult visitor, the National Museum, even with concessions, would be looking at an annual income in excess of £15m. I am informed that the decision whether or not to charge an entrance fee at such sites at both local and national levels rests with Holyrood. Surely a precedent has already been set at national level when there are entrance charges applied at Historic Environment Scotland properties? Adult visitors to Edinburgh Castle have to pay a whopping £29.50 while for Holyrood Palace the standard entrance fee charged by the Royal Collection Trust is £25. So can I appeal to our politicians at both national and local levels to get their act together and rapidly move Scotland into the real tourist world? Eric Melvin, Edinburgh. Read more letters Let's buy these old ferries I note with interest Scott Wright's article on the preferred bidder being named by Western Ferries ("Western Ferries names shipbuilder", The Herald, April 25). Whilst the two new vessels are to be built by APCL Cammell Laird on Merseyside, rather than in Scotland, it is good to know that the order is going to a UK yard. The article prompted me to consider the potential opportunity for the Scottish Government, Transport Scotland, CalMac and CMAL. I am presuming that Western Ferries is replacing the two oldest vessels in its current fleet of four vessels. The two oldest vessels were built by Ferguson at Port Glasgow in 2001 (MV Sound of Scarba) and 2003 (MV Sound of Shuna). These are well-founded vessels ideal for short sea crossings, double-ended loading/unloading facilities, economic to operate with a crew of four. Acquisition of one or both of these vessels would provide additional resilience for CalMac on short sea crossings, Largs to Millport being one example. They are mono hull vessels so the "we don't do catamarans" argument from CMAL and Transport Scotland does not apply. Western Ferries has a very good record in terms of fleet maintenance and operation, so there is a potential to strengthen the CMAL / CalMac fleet. These two vessels could also be of use to the Scottish local authorities who operate ferry services, often with quite old vessels. Perhaps Cabinet Secretary for Transport Fiona Hyslop might seriously explore the acquisition of these two vessels? Kevin A McCallum, Glasgow. Raw deal on prostate cancer Mary McCabe makes a really good point in her letter (April 28) headed "Don't they care about older people?" regarding national bowel (and breast cancer) screening, both of which are regularly in the media. Less so (except recently with the tragic case of Chris Hoy) is prostate cancer. Unlike breast cancer (11,500 deaths per year) and bowel cancer (16,800 deaths per year) there is no national screening programme. Rather there is an ad hoc referrals system based on quite possibly the worst analytical screening test out there: the PSA blood test. Although work in a number of areas (including MRI as highlighted in The Herald recently) is ongoing, the pace is glacial. All the while at least one other blood test which suggests much greater consistency and accuracy (PSE) is available but only to those who know of its existence and have the near £1,000 to access it privately. Meantime PCa is the most common cancer in men (one in eight men will suffer PCa) and 12,000 men will die this year from PCa. Colin Clark, Inverness. Burning question It's surely irresponsible that, while an "extreme" warning of wildfires is in place, our local Tesco (and doubtless other retailers) is promoting the sale of disposable barbecues. Is no-one capable of linking possible cause to dire effect? Brian Chrystal, Edinburgh. The MV Sound of Shuna (Image: Contributed) The Six O' Clock English News The Six O' Clock News on BBC1 tonight (April 28): Item on school uniforms, in England, prescription charges, in England, and local council elections, oh in England. It is the BBC, not the EBC. Steve Barnet, Gargunnock. That ruddy vocabulary Ruddy, bloomin', haverings, chuckle. Reading your esteemed golf correspondent Nick Rodger's Tuesday pieces, I now find myself looking for what appear to be his favourite words, instead of concentrating on the subject under discussion. Today, I had to read almost seven paragraphs of haverings about the complexities of Mr Rodger's golf swing before finding a "ruddy" ("The Open Championship packs them in but sometimes less is more", Herald Sport, April 29). I might chuckle if Mr Rodger would come to the bloomin' point less slowly. A wee change of vocabulary would be appreciated. David Miller, Milngavie.
