Holyrood must help city in its hour of need - Alex Cole-Hamilton
I’ve been reading a lot about the history of 109 Princes Street. It was built in 1869, originally as a hotel boasting incredible views of the castle. It was the only hotel in Edinburgh to have what is called a Mansard roof, the kind you see everywhere along the Haussmann boulevards of Paris.
Of course, readers will know it as the former Debenhams building, but some may not know that before that, its upper floors were the home of the Scottish Liberal Club.
In its Victorian heyday, 109 Princes Street welcomed the likes of William Gladstone and Lord Roseberry into its salons and halls. Indeed, it must have been a buzzing hive of activity for the Liberal Party’s dominance during that era.
In a recent interview, one of my party colleagues, John Lawrie, remembers the grandeur of the building and the thrill of being around people you recognised from newspapers and portraits. He recalls a “sort of porter’s lodge kind of thing”, a “magnificent staircase” and the Gladstone Library.
While I never visited the building when it was the Liberal Club, there is something so transportive about John’s memories. You get a sense of the pride that was cemented into the stonework, a sense of the vision that people had for the city. It’s why it feels both extremely sad and surreal to look up from Princes Street Gardens at the blackened, hollowed-out shell the fire has left.
As well as destroying a link with Edinburgh’s past, the fire is also harming lives and livelihoods in the present.
It has led to no trams running between the city centre to Leith and Newhaven. As a result, many businesses in the north of Edinburgh are experiencing a dramatic loss of footfall. Some have reported revenue falling by up to 60 per cent. As festival season begins, it couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Many have noted the stark differences in the Scottish Government’s response to this fire and that which broke out on Union Corner in Glasgow.
Like the Princess Street fire, the Glasgow blaze also devastated a historic city centre building and caused huge disruption for the public transport system.
Unlike the Princes Street fire, the Scottish Government announced £10 million in support for Glasgow City Council and the affected businesses.
That financial package was announced within a week of the Union Corner fire. Almost a month on from the Princes Street fire and the SNP government have only said they will meet with Edinburgh City Council. Their glacial and virtually non-existent response sends a borderline contemptuous message to businesses and our economy.
My Scottish Liberal Democrat colleague and Edinburgh Northern MSP Sanne Dijkstra-Downie has written to John Swinney, urging him to deliver a package of funding that will help the council and businesses deal with the fallout. At the time of writing, we have yet to receive a response.
Edinburgh is a beautiful, brilliant city. Its history is everywhere. People flood in from across the world to experience it. But the pride that was cemented into its stonework is still fragile.
The Scottish Government cannot afford to be complacent about the city’s past and the important influence it has on its present.