CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
"Cyclists’ joy at St James Quarter route plans"
(106 posts)-
Posted 8 years ago #
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The plan will seek permission to turn the site into a hotel fronting St James Square.
Bosses at developer TIAA Henderson had originally intended to convert the existing block into housing.
"
http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/our-region/edinburgh/hotel-bid-for-st-james-site-1-4188557
Posted 8 years ago # -
This sort of scope creep should hardly be surprising. It's not like this was ever going to be much needed affordable housing.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"It was reported yesterday that Dutch pension fund APG had bought a 75 per cent stake in the scheme, paving the way for work to get started."
Good to know Edinburgh shoppers will be helping to support Dutch pensioners in their dotage.
"Bosses said the NCP Car Park would close at 7pm tonight, with the nearest available parking now at QPark Greenside."
That will be interesting on a weekend. Where will all the cars go? Or maybe, now St James is shut, they won't bother coming in? (Yeah right).
"the luxury “ribbon” hotel at its centre has been compared to a Mr Whippy ice cream, while others prefer a ruder likeness."
It's a bronze turd. Come on, EEN, just say it.
"the massive new development will boast a staggering 1.7 million sq ft of retail and leisure space, dwarfing what’s currently on offer anywhere else in the city centre and representing one of the UK’s largest private sector regeneration projects."
Oh but no cycle routes...
'Scottish Government economy secretary Keith Brown said Edinburgh St James would have a “significant positive impact on construction activity, jobs, and the economy”.'
I wonder which route the many tipper lorries and cement mixers will be following? Might be advisable to avoid Picardy Place and Leith Street on the bike for the next four years or so...
"the sort of place where punters simply push a button on their seat to be served an ice-cold drink of their choice." '...each state-of-the-art auditorium comes “complete with luxury sofa seating, individual foot rests, tables and wine coolers, offering a totally unique cinema-going experience” '
Yipee. I can't wait.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Do we know what the plan for Picardy Place is?
Posted 8 years ago # -
That will be interesting on a weekend. Where will all the cars go?
Seem to recall it's nearly always empty anyway. Much cheaper to dump your vehicle on a handy street or pavement closer to your destination.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Do we know what the plan for Picardy Place is
St James (original) plan was to move the York Place tram stop to where it was supposed to be in the middle of Picardy roundabout. The entire area would then become one large roundabout with the tram stop in the middle. Picardy Place becomes one leg of the roundabout.
However, I seem to recall that St James developers have withdrawn funding for tram - think they'd originally offered £80 mill to extend to Leith. (which funnily enough matched CEC funding to St James of £80 mill)
Picardy-roundabout by Paul fae Fountainbridge, on Flickr
Posted 8 years ago # -
Yes. A normal T-junction is what's required. With one arm of the former gyratory reserved for the sole use of pedestrians and cyclists.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Difficult to find the original St James plan. Have found this - which was for street lighting. Says "Layout subject to future application"
Picardy-roundabout-2 by Paul fae Fountainbridge, on Flickr
Posted 8 years ago # -
Wow. I saw a rendering that looked a bit like that but scoffed and assumed it was a bit of artistic license and that they wouldn't dream of doing that. It's quite impressive to take one of the top two worst pedestrian environments in central Edinburgh and make it (arguably) even more unpleasant. If they lopped one of the arms off - retaining it for bike and, if they must, bus use as well - they could create a nice new (if slightly noisy) bit of green space.
Perhaps this is all required to effectively funnel through all the traffic flooding into its new underground car park?
At least there's segregated cycling infrastructure, I suppose...
Posted 8 years ago # -
I'm sorry, it was SUSTRANS and not SPOKES who released the hypothetical plans showing exactly that - a public square created by removing one side of the gyratory.
http://greenerleith.org.uk/blog/picardy-place-revamp-ideas-unveiled-sustrans-4060
Posted 8 years ago # -
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Leith Street
The appearance of the street will be improved by the introduction of much stone and granite for surfaces. Central railing will be removed.
Public transport, bicycles (2 lanes) and pedestrians will be prioritised over cars in the final scheme.
The road surface will rise by up to 800mm in some places.
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From the Spurtl report on recent LCCC meeting:
http://www.broughtonspurtle.org.uk/news/perry-st-james-quarter
Posted 7 years ago # -
"The appearance of the street will be improved by reducing it to 2 lanes of vehicular traffic"
Said no proposal in Edinburgh ever.
Posted 7 years ago #
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