Edinburgh's Rose Street is set to enjoy a major makeover
in a pioneering project led by Essential Edinburgh, the
Capital's central Business Improvement District. Chief Executive
Any Neal tells us more...
What's the vision for Rose Street?
The issue for Rose Street at the moment is that it's in the
shadow of Princes Street and George Street, both of which have a
clear identity. The plan for Rose Street is to give it its own
personality, which should be something a little bit quirky. When we
were doing our consultation, we identified different types of
streets in other cities to give us clues, and the one most people
liked was Carnaby Street in London's West End. It's in very close
proximity to Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street, but has
its own quirky character, and that's the vision for Rose
Street.
What kind of improvements are planned?
There was very clear feedback from the consultation that the
number one issue in Rose Street is to sort out the traffic
management issues. It is primarily pedestrianised in terms of the
road surface, but lots of small delivery vans also use the street
at any time of day. This is confusing for pedestrians and also
causes huge damage to the road surface, buildings and street
furniture. If it's to be pedestrianised, let's make it
pedestrianised and restrict vehicles to a certain time - we've got
one group looking at how to manage that.
The second clear priority was to attract people to come down
Rose Street by making the entrances more welcoming and inviting. So
we're looking at a combination of permanent signage and also
permanent and temporary lighting, including the possibility of
projections onto the gable ends. The idea is to create the sense of
something interesting going on down the street.
The third priority is to create a marketing and promotional
calendar of events to attract people into Rose Street. And if
there's any money left after that, we'll be looking to improve the
street lighting and street furniture.
How is the work being funded?
Essential Edinburgh is putting in £300,000. This is a levy
raised from the 600 or so businesses in the Essential Edinburgh
area. The City of Edinburgh Council are matching that funding. The
Assembly Rooms and Primark are also providing some funding to the
Council for infrastructure improvements in Rose Street as part of
their recent significant building works - and this will be chipped
in too.
How important is this project?
If you're a business in Rose Street it's absolutely crucial -
because it's your livelihood. For Essential Edinburgh, it's one of
our top two priorities in terms of an urgent need to make a
difference to the city centre. We think Rose Street is a hidden gem
in Edinburgh, and if we can attract more people to go down there
they'll discover a whole group of interesting stores, restaurants
and other outlets. So this project is about polishing that hidden
gem.
