Princes street became the main shopping centre for Edinburgh almost by accident.
The architect James Craig won a competition in 1766 to lay out the plan for a 'new town' to be developed to the north of the overcrowded and unsanitary city (now known as the 'Old Town').
In it, he sought to lay out in physical form the embodiment of the British constitution - a central avenue running east/west, named 'George Street' after the King, which ran the length of the development. At each end, he placed a square - the eastern square was named after the Scottish Patron Saint, St Andrew, the other was due to be named after St George, but by that time, Edinburgh already had a George Square, so it was renamed 'Charlotte Square' after the queen.
To the north of George Street, ran the parallel 'Queen Street' - with gardens on one side, and to the south, he assigned a similar road, named 'Princes Street' (It's actually princes in the plural) after the heirs to the throne.
Intersecting
the three roads at right angles were a number of short roads; 'Castle Street' 'Fredrick Street' and 'Hanover Street'
Between Princes Street and George Street runs a narrower road, of much lower class buildings, which for the main part is 'Rose Street' - the mirror image between George Street and Queen Street is 'Thistle Street'.
Why, then, did princes Street become the 'main drag' for Edinburgh? - there is a simple but less than entirely obvious reason for this.
Dividing the old and new towns was a body of water known as the 'Nor Loch' into which drained half the raw sewerage of the old town. This was eventually drained, in its place was set what is now Princes Street Gardens. At each end was built a railway station - at the east; Edinburgh Waverley (still in use) next to which was built the North British Hotel (now the Balmoral) and at the other, Princes Street Station, and the Caledonian Hotel. The original site of the station is occupied amongst other things by the headquarters of Standard Life.
The final part of the jigsaw was the Edinburgh Corporation Tram network, which took Princes street as the main axis for mass transportation in the city. To this day, the majority of bus services route through Princes Street.
This presented an ideal location for the emerging prestige Victorian department stores, which existed until the early 1970s, names such as 'Forsyths' 'Jenners' 'Smalls' 'Binns' 'C&A' and 'Marks and Spencer' were familiar to anybody living in the city up to that point.
During the 1970s, many of the independent shops were taken over by department store chains, notably House of Fraser, and after the Oil Crisis of 1973 and subsequent recession, many of these stores were amalgamated, many of the stores were closed down.
The street itself is a little less than one mile long, but has buildings on only one side. Whereas the original stores offered four, five or even six retail floors, the peculiarities of the rating system (costs being about the same if not more than London Oxford Street) meant that many shops now only operate on three floors. I recall working in one store in the early 1980s, where the top three floors were strictly out of bounds on account of rampant dry rot.
The selection of shops nowadays reads like practically any other high street in the country, Dixons, HMV, Virgin, Macdonalds, Burger King, M&S, Waterstones etc, just about the only name recognisable from the 'old days' is Jenners, which remains as the last independent family owned department store, probably closest in metropolitan terms to Selfridges.
Car parking? - forget it! Bus Lanes, one way systems and a deliberate policy to discourage four wheeled personal transport means even if you do find a place it'll cost you an arm and a leg to park!
Railway? Only really practical if you want to do the 'east end', otherwise you can expect a two mile hike!
Bus passengers are fairly well catered for.
In terms of a public space in which people can wander up and down rather aimlessly, it serves the purpose quite well, but the range of shops isn't that broad, and I would suggest, if you have your own transport, you would be better served by places such as the Gyle, or Cameron Toll.
If you find yourself in Edinburgh City Centre with a couple of hours to kill, then it provides a fairly safe environment, having the advantage of providing superb views of the castle and old town, for serious shopping, you'd be better going to the St James Centre at the east end of Princes Street, or Waverley centre, on the site of the old fruit market between the station and princes street, also at the east end.
Outwith the summer months, Princes Street can be a little uncomfortable, running on an east/west axis it offers little protection to the prevailing wind - again - consider the nearby shopping centres.
During the summer, it's overrun with tourists, many of which are adolescents from Southern Europe on language courses, who have still to discover the 'Joy of Soap'
Like many city centres, Princes Street has suffered from the 'out of town' boom of the 1990s. What is left is, with a couple of notable exceptions, a carbon copy of practically any other shopping street.
I wouldn't suggest you avoided it, but I wouldn't make any particular effort to go there specifically to shop.
I plan on writing a couple of more opinions on other places to shop in Edinburgh, so check my page regularly.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
NH Hotels, the hotel chain leader in Europe, with more than 300 hotels in 20 countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Enter into our web site and find the best available tariff at all times
Jun 26th, 2003
very helpful by (100%):
