AFTER the flurry of activity, the silence.

It’s been over three months since design proposals for Princes Street (or, more accurately, ‘Waverley Valley’) were thrown out by councillors, amid claims of timidity and calls for something more ambitious.

And unless there are moves taking place behind the scenes - which BuildEdinburgh is not privy to - it does …

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IN the words of [singer-songwriter] Joni Mitchell, you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.

With hind­sight, we took Princes Street for gran­ted. Vis­it­ors to Edin­burgh mar­velled at 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 …

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EDINBURGH is going through one of its cyclical Princes Street ‘conversations’ - fruitless, in my time - unless, in a negative way, you count the fear of development and the flight of retail from the street caused by the creation of the Big Mall at the St James Quarter.

Or, positively, if you include the tram, and the associated new ways we value travel …

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PRINCES Street has long occupied an uneasy place in Edinburgh’s civic life: simultaneously its most recognisable address and one of its most contested.

Both our shop window and our common ground, it is the point at which the ordered confidence of the New Town meets the drama of the Old Town.

As is well documented, its magnificence was carefully curated,…

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THREE buildings on Princes Street are currently enveloped in scaffolding, with one of the properties being partly demolished.

Of the trio, two might be reasonably considered significant landmarks: Jenners department store and the former RW Forsyth department store that was latterly occupied by fashion chain, Topshop.

The third - sandwiched between the Lev…

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WHAT to do with Princes Street? It’s a question that has long exercised the city and architects both near and far.

Last week, the council’s Planning committee rejected what was being billed as ‘final non-statutory planning guidance’, for Princes Street and the ‘Waverley Valley’, mainly on the grounds that it was too timid.

The decision was reported extens…

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IF we are agreed that the future of Princes Street is probably best served by hosting a design competition - as opposed to inviting comments, only for them to potentially pile up as talk (as argued, here, on BuildEdinburgh) - then the question arises: what might prospective designers first require to know?

In no particular order:

• How might the number of b…

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IT would - from an Edinburgh perspective - be the ‘mother’ of all design competitions.

When councillors, on Wednesday, sent back to the drawing board a proposed ‘final’ strategy for Princes Street and the ‘Waverley Valley’, it was with claims ringing in their ears that something more ambitious is needed.

As it stood, the proposed strategy (here) mainly co…

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IT’S the Tuesday before last. 9.40pm. And I’ve arrived at Princes Street, for a No.4 bus, after having been dropped off in Hanover Street.

There’s nothing much happening on either Princes Street or neighbouring George Street.

But there is no question which is the more popular of the two, for promenading.

Perhaps that’s because there was nothing particular…

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