'Overwhelmingly positive' response to new restaurant opening in Princes Street - your views online

"Keep it free of junk food shops and tartan tat shops. Princes Street deserves better”

Quiet Princes Street in Edinburgh during Monday morning rush hour as people are advised to stay home amid Coronavirus pandemic. March 23 2020

Bar and Block Steakhouse

'Overwhelmingly positive' response to new restaurant opening in Princes Street

Pat Sharp

Just please make the frontage appropriate and beautiful. Princes Street used to be the most elegant boulevard and is now dirty with shops selling Chinese manufactured tartan toot and blaring bagpipe music. We need a committee of intelligent, knowledgeable Edinburgh residents to oversee what’s being allowed!

Lynn Hand

I would a thousand times rather the street was devoted to restaurants and cafes than that we had nothing but tatty tartan rubbish. People shop online so much now that we can't expect shopping areas to be as large as they were. There's nothing wrong with repurposing Princes Street.

Ronnie Wood

The council should remove the trams, buses and taxis from Princes Street and pedestrianise it. You can then have restaurants, bars and hotels replacing the retail sector. Put in place a fully retractable roof in case of inclement weather. The pedestrian area would flow nicely into Princes Street Gardens with the Castle as a backdrop, it would be absolutely fabulous!

Alan Tommy Gunn

Keep it free of junk food shops and tartan tat shops. Princes Street deserves better. Can’t think of a better street in Edinburgh for having outside cafe tables. Great view and south facing. Just reduce the number of buses on Princes street and it would be great. Why do so many routes use this street, yet ignore routes that connect families in different parts of the city?

Mikey Inglis

“Overwhelmingly positive response” and Edinburgh isn’t something you’d put together usually. I applaud the usual suspects for changing their outlook on life.

John Macdonald

Next they'll block the pavement with pods for "outside" eating and pedestrians will be on the road. No vehicles allowed.

Boyd Smith

What little beautiful building fronts, please don’t tear them down for sandstone new builds. Other than that, hell yeah. Imagine dining and having a night out across the whole of Princes Street, very few if any cities in the world could match that view.

Nancy Law

A street of restaurants just won't work, so many eateries as it is. Would be great if council can work with shop owners and make Princes Street a street of independent boutiques.

Sandra Morris

Been on the cards. As long as we are prepared for different weather situations, what a fab place to sit, Princes Street overlooking the Castle.

Richard Fyvie

The worrying thing is this is a no brainer and has taken how long? Could have been one of the finest streets to dine in for many years. Anyways, hopefully in the years to come we can say it is.

Claire A A Eadie

Princes Street is looking a sad place, no longer a place to spend an afternoon in. Done within an hour today, which makes me sad, hopefully any regeneration happens quickly.

Paul Adams

The council missed a huge opportunity when introducing trams. They should have banned all other traffic, put the trams on the castle side, fully pedestrianised the shop side and created a boulevard- style Princes Street including high class shops, cafes and restaurants with a view that no other city in the world could match.

John Hewit

Not sure if a lot of the shops would be suitable for restaurant or bar use. Many are multi-floor, very deep and just plain too big. This place works as it is, letting Premier Inn expand into the upper floors, but shops like Debenhams or Jenners are probably only any use as hotels, which isnt to say they cant have bars and restaurants as well. The exception to this is the Johnny Walker place in the old Frasers, it’ll be worth a look.

Louise Wilson

Unfortunately Princes Street has had its day. I find it easier to go to Glasgow Fort for shopping. It’s easy to park the car. If I have the car I spend more money as I can take lots of trips back to the car to drop off what I have bought. It’s to much of a hassle to try to attempt a trip into town now, but this is what the council wanted- no traffic in town. Princess Street is just dirty and run down. Nothing really to be proud of now.

John Smith

Anything to bring an ounce of quality back to the street. It deserves more than Poundland, phone-shops and tartan-tat.

I shudder to think the prices a restaurant would have to charge to pay the rates bill! Tourists only, not for the plebs.