Edinburgh World Heritage backs council's cautious approach to Princes Street revamp
Heritage group urges building on street’s qualities and characteristics
Edinburgh's world heritage body has backed the council's more cautious approach to the future of Princes Street, saying the aim should be to build on the street's qualities and the characteristics rather than attempting to modify it.
Councillors are due to debate different options on Wednesday.
Terry Levinthal, director of Edinburgh World Heritage, said there was no limit to the radical ideas that could be advanced."There is a long history of those with Princes Street and the Waverley valley," he said.
"The Princes Street Panel report of 1968 not only proposed changes to Princes Street, it proposed the demolition of the First New Town; there were schemes in the 1950s when we were talking about putting muti-storey car parks and bus stations in East Princes Street Gardens; in the late 1990s we were thinking of putting an underground shopping mall under the entire length of Princes Street; and even more recently we were thinking of putting a 68,000-seat concert venue in the heart of West Princes Street Gardens.
"All of these things taken in total would mean we wouldn't have a World Heritage Site because there would be nothing left to celebrate.
"And they were all being promoted by very serious, well-minded people. There wasn't an objective to do damage, it was an objective to drive change and that change was ultimately ill-advised."
He said the council's stated intention of being pragmatic and careful, but nevertheless having ambition, was "the right way forward". And he said such an approach still allowed "great latitude for change".
"We're already seeing that with the number of hotels popping up in and how the council has changed its policy of Princes Street being solely a retail street and allowing other uses to come into it."