Edinburgh's String of Pearls

String of Pearls is the City of Edinburgh Council's vision for the long-term regeneration of Princes Street.

Princes Street is the 'front line' between Edinburgh's Old and New Towns and enjoys some of the most spectacular urban views to be found anywhere in the world. Despite its location, the retail sector has been under performing in recent years.

There is simply not enough space for the number of retailers who want to trade in the city centre. Those who are here are too often forced to trade from stores that are too small for their needs or are poorly configured for modern retailing.

In other cities, the solution to these problems would be large-scale demolitions and construction of shopping malls. However this is difficult in a World Heritage Site.

The String of Pearls project aims to generate greater architectural quality and better shopping provision by developing the unique character of each block, rationalising the retail floor plates and providing tenable occupation in the vacant upper stories.

Under the project, Princes Street has been divided into ten sections, each representing a pearl, with a number of planned and live interconnected developments stretching from Calton Hill to Haymarket.

Recent Developments

• Numbers 121-123 at the west end of Princes Street are to be redeveloped into a £40 million hotel and retail scheme by Deramore Properties. New Look has prelet the 30,000 sq ft retail unit while a Premier Inn, 103-room hotel will be incorporated into the upper floors. This heralds the first hotel development on Princes Street since the completion of the Mount Royal in 1955. Due for completion in 2012 the new development will create around 200 jobs. 
• Global fashion retailer Primark has submitted plans for the redevelopment of a retail unit at 91-93 Princes Street. The 6,500 sq mtr store - Primark's first in the capital - will feature frontages on both Princes Street and Rose Street, encouraging the circulation of shoppers between the two retail destinations.
• The NHS and Creative Scotland have taken space at the Waverley Gate office development at 2-4 Waterloo Place, joining Microsoft UK whilst Travelodge is to re-inforce its position as the largest accommodation provider in Edinburgh with the opening of a 93 bedroom hotel in an existing 'A' listed building.
• Recently, within the String of Pearls development brief , the City of Edinburgh Council announced plans to bring the former Royal High School building on Calton Hill back into public use for the first time in almost 40 years. The iconic building is to undergo a £35 million redevelopment into an "arts hotel" which will have public gallery space. Following a European wide tendering process, the council awarded the project to Duddingston House Properties, which will now submit designs. Edinburgh City Council leader Jenny Dawe described the development as "hugely exciting" and said, " it would form an integral part of a wider project to bring "new life" to the city centre and allow this wonderful building to be brought respectfully into the 21st Century," she added.