Friday 18 April 2008

The Trouble with Edinburgh

Anyone walking about Edinburgh's centre, the Royal Mile, New Town or South Bridge, cannot fail to be struck - by the dirtiness of Edinburgh's buildings. Consider the university's Old College, for example:

(no decent internet picture available, and my camera is still in repair - hurry up Canon!)

Dirt dating back to the nineteenth century cakes the sandstone exterior, black soot impregnated into the stone. The same is true for the neoclassical grid of the New Town, filthy as a miner's fingernail. Why not give them a good wash? Edinburgh is dark and grim at the best of times. Give us some bright streetscapes, Edinburgh!

2 comments:

Paul McMc said...

I thought that was to do with Edinburgh's World Heritage Site status - "we can't touch this building because we believe Walter Scott once coughed up some sputum on it" - that sort of thing.

Robert Craig said...

Perhaps - people in this town would still be couping their waste out the window if it were up to some of the mustard-breeked reactionaries here. But to their credit, they shout louder than natives of other towns, and have done well fighting bad development. I just can't see how a scrub up wouldn't improve the place.

(I'll show you the plans to improve their patter later.)