"By splitting the area into 'hearts', designers hope to enable all residents to be able to access local shops and services within five minutes' walk"
http://guardian.co.uk/edinburgh/2011/feb/14/edinburgh-waterfront-granton-area-development-framework
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
Walking future for the Waterfront(?)
(25 posts)-
Posted 14 years ago #
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<insert generic grumble about coming up with new names for places that already have perfectly acceptable names>
Part of Wardie subsumed into "Old Granton"
Western Harbour now "New Granton"
Town centre for somewhere that isn't a town
Village for somwhere that isn't a villageCriagroyston and Caroline Park are perfectly good, historic names for areas on this map but have been conveniently erased from the "masterframeworkplan" or whatever it is.
</grumble>
Posted 14 years ago # -
Say something about modern life when the perceived distance we can walk in 5 minutes isn't dictated by biology and/or physics, but by designers...
Posted 14 years ago # -
"The city council has admitted for the first time that major developments delivered over the last ten years have been a failure."
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/news/Ambitious-plans-to-revitalise-docklands.6718234.jp
Posted 14 years ago # -
From The Scotsman article:
"Leith is to be "strengthened" as the heart of the whole waterfront, with heavy goods vehicles diverted off the main road, on to a new through route through the docklands east of Salamander Street."
I wonder what is meant by a "new" route? Where do you cross the WOL - the Ocean Drive bridge, or maybe a brand new bridge?
Posted 14 years ago # -
"...east of Salamander Street..."
I had a wee trundle through there one evening the other week, having not yet done so since moving nearby nine months ago. There's the road which goes over the level crossing opposite the crematorium, runs between Seafield and the huge pipe farm, along the sea wall, turns down between some more industrial units, crosses the rails again then ends at some locked gates (but which doesn't end at some locked gates on Google Maps or the OSM data available to the BikeHub app or OpenGPS but which is marked as restricted on OSM online). I haven't investigated the other end of the locked gates from the Bath Road end yet. It looks like a few more gate-unlockings could mean a continuous route from there to the units the other side of Dalton's, thence across the new bridge, past OT then presumably along the back road (if it ever re-opens) past Chancelot Mills rather than fighting the 22 out of Ocean Drive and ripping up the surface of that junction to turn right.Posted 14 years ago # -
So Leith is being strengthened? Lots of RSJs and pitprops and that sort of thing?
Posted 14 years ago # -
"then ends at some locked gates"
It's some years since I've been there.
There was a time when the gates weren't locked. After that it was possible to squeeze under one of the gates (even with a bike!)
Security used to be almost non existent. But over the years things have changed (not just Leith Docks) - rabies, man killed when car went in the water, general 'health and safety' in an industrial environment, then terrorism.
OUGHT to be possible to get a walk/cycle through that section of docks without compromising security/safety. (Long term "Boardwalk" plan.)
Posted 14 years ago # -
Yay, my street (Great Junkie) is being strengthened. No idea what that means, but it sounds like Very Important Work and Incredibly Exciting.
May stop all the subsidence :)
Posted 14 years ago # -
There's an interesting bit of "path" that is meant to connect Bath Road and Tower Street, there's an image of it here (can't hotlink the image).
It follows the trackbed of one of the many old Railways around the docks. Unfortunately, Forth Ports have fenced off either side with security fencing and the butterfly bushes have now completely reclaimed it to the point you wouldn't know there's a path there if you looked. It's odd, I wonder what possible reason they had for shutting it off? Probably to keep junkies or ladies of the night out...
What is marked on the map as "Albert Road" is also fenced off by Forth Ports. It should connect with the other end of the road that Wingpig refers to. I think some more exploring is called for next week.
Posted 14 years ago # -
"Would a 'coastal park' work at Newhaven?"
http://t.co/QtJcB5NPosted 14 years ago # -
I managed to penetrate into the heart of Leith Docks as far as the orange line. Albert Road is gated off by Forth Ports. Its got quite an abandoned, dystopian feel down there. Wouldn't fancy hanging around late at night.
Brown lines = old NBR track
Blue lines = old CR track
Yellow lines = old dock board trackPosted 14 years ago # -
"Leithers shut out of talks on £84m Waterfront future"
CITY leaders today came under fire for not allowing people from the Leith area to get involved in designs for a new £84 million plan to kickstart the development of Edinburgh's Waterfront.
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topstories/Leithers-shut-out-of-talks.6725876.jp
Posted 14 years ago # -
"Wouldn't fancy hanging around late at night"
IMAG0341 by wingpig, on Flickr (and Blip).I'm surprised it's not a magnet for tubes in be-spoilerèd giant-exhausted cars late at night but there's been no-one down there whenever I've popped for a poke. They were lorrying pipes between sections of it last night but didn't seem bothered by my presence. Despite not being attacked and killed I'll probably not try and pop down Bath Road to check out the nether end of Albert Road late at night but shall try in the morning so that I'm not mistaken for someone out whoremongering.
Posted 14 years ago # -
I took a photo of that sign in the background there. NO AMINALS! RABIES!
Posted 14 years ago # -
The walking / cycling future is getting a bit closer. Looks like the cycle path to nowhere along the sea wall at Granton is getting a proper tarmac exit onto West Shore Road;
I think the architect must have been bored and went a bit over the top - it seems like an inordinate volume of tarmac just to connect a piece of cycle path to a road. Well you either get no path or lots of it!At this rate you'll be able to cycle offroad on tarmac from Cramond to Joppa in time for the first tram running in 2060.
Posted 14 years ago # -
What's behind them cones, though? Hope they haven't just left that bit like it was, with all mud and bits of stuff. I've only been down it at night so couldn't see what the bits were made of but they were definitely there...
Posted 14 years ago # -
They've (largely) cleaned up the stretch heading west towards Cramond.
Posted 14 years ago # -
The car parking spaces were added during last week. If one was naughty enough to nip behind the fence and pootle along to Silverknowes prom, one might have discovered that there was only a small amount of tarmac still to be completed (underlay already down, so to speak) ...a source close to the shore told me.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Well I went along on Sunday all the way from Cramond on uninterrupted tarmac, perhaps they finished on Saturday? The locals had thoughtfully pried apart the security fencing to allow access.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Kaputnik: perhaps they finished on Saturday?
Quite probably. There wasn't a lot to complete when I - sorry... a friend - went along there. Maybe the fence'll come down in time for this weekend...Posted 14 years ago # -
Not a single speck of buddleia left on Albert Road this afternoon. Do they clear it every year or is something special afoot? Maybe it's just to stop people infiltrating the studios on the old Pelamis site under cover of undergrowth.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Forth Ports have re-fenced-off Albert Road:
Whilst it is not a railway, their use of this sign presumably means to stop people going through the other holes in the fence to the left to get beyond this one, which would indeed involve crossing wasteland contiguous with railway-land. Didn't see if they'd plugged the missing rail in the fence at the Bath Road end.
Presumably the slightly larger numbers of people walking peacefully along it during lockdown has irked them in some way.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Is that where they’re storing the long forgotten stash of Ammonium Nitrate?
Posted 5 years ago # -
In other Forth Ports/Network Rail news, that's the fenced-off footbridge next to the level crossing at Marine Esplanade away today:
Posted 4 years ago #
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