Haymarket, Edinburgh

Haymarket (Scots: Heymercat,[1] Scottish Gaelic: Margadh an Fheòir)[2] is an area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is in the west of the city centre and is the junction of several main roads, notably Dalry Road (which leads south-west to Gorgie Road and the M8 motorway to Glasgow), Corstorphine Road (leading west to the M8 and the M9 for Stirling and the north), and Shandwick Place (leading east to Princes Street and the city centre).

Haymarket

Haymarket junction
Haymarket
Location within Edinburgh
OS grid referenceNT240732
Council area
Lieutenancy area
  • Edinburgh
CountryScotland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townEDINBURGH
Postcode districtEH3, EH12
Dialling code0131
PoliceScotland
FireScottish
AmbulanceScottish
UK Parliament
Scottish Parliament
The Heart of Midlothian War Memorial at the centre of the Haymarket junction

Haymarket contains a number of popular pubs, cafés and restaurants.

In the centre of the crossroads at the heart of Haymarket is a war memorial in the form of a clock tower, principally for former players of Heart of Midlothian F.C. but also for players from other Scottish clubs who made the ultimate sacrifice; those from Hibernian, Raith Rovers, Dunfermline, East Fife and St Bernard's, were also part of McCrae's Battalion, known as "The footballers' Battalion", who died in World Wars I and II. It was designed by the sculptor Henry Snell Gamley.[3] The memorial was temporarily removed in 2010 to allow construction of the tramway across the road junction. It was replaced in a slightly different position in 2013, in time for the commemoration of the centenary of the outbreak of World War I.

Transport interchange

The newly redeveloped Haymarket railway station[4] is located here and is called at by the busy commuter services to Glasgow and Fife, as well as long-distance services to Carlisle, Inverness and Aberdeen.

Edinburgh Trams' Haymarket stop is located adjacently north of the station for connections to the west of the city as far as Edinburgh Airport and the city centre to the east. The westbound tramway continues off-street at this point via Haymarket Yards.

Lothian Buses are the main operator for local bus connections to and from the interchange stop on Haymarket Terrace, and nearby Dalry Road. West Lothian routes are operated by Lothian Country (a Lothian Buses brand). Express coach connections from Glasgow are operated by Scottish Citylink.

The taxi rank is situated in Rosebery Crescent.

Redevelopment

Plans to develop the former Morrison Street Goods Yard, a former railway site which has been partially derelict and partially a car park for many years were approved by The City of Edinburgh Council on 25 June 2008.[5] Tiger Developments purchased the site from City of Edinburgh Council for approximately £50 million in December 2006. The plans for the site included a 17-storey, 5-star hotel, a 3-star hotel, office buildings, retail space, bars, shops and a small supermarket.[6] However, this approval was overturned by Scottish ministers in October 2009, on the recommendation of a planning inquiry reporter, citing concerns about the impact of the 17-storey hotel on Edinburgh's skyline.[7]

A revised planning application, incorporating a similar mixed use, with a lower skyline, was approved by the Council in December 2010.[8] Work to strengthen the railway tunnels under Haymarket began in 2013 in preparation for the construction of the new £200m development above which is to include a 320-space underground car park.[9] This involves grouting between the tunnel lining and the surrounding ground, and drilling and inserting metal bars within the brick lining. Due to line operations, works access was limited in the north tunnel to between midnight and 5am four nights of the week and in the south tunnel from 1am to 9.30am one night a week.[10]

Above-ground construction was scheduled to start in early 2015 and the first phase was expected to be complete by 2016. However, delays in the strengthening of the tunnels and the sale of the project to M&G Real Estate by Interserve [11] have delayed the start of construction. The Haymarket, as the development is to be known, will provide new pedestrian links to neighbouring Fountainbridge and The Exchange district.

References
  1. List of railway station names in English, Scots and Gaelic – NewsNetScotland Archived 22 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba ~ Gaelic Place-Names of Scotland
  3. https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=33048&p=0
  4. Haymarket Station officially opened - 19 December 2013
  5. "Haymarket hotel proposal approved". BBC. 25 June 2008.
  6. Richard Murphy Architects Archived 2007-08-08 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Skyline is the limit as plans for £250m hotel thrown out - Edinburgh Evening News, 28 October 2009
  8. Planners give new Haymarket gap site proposal thumbs-up - Edinburgh Evening News 3 December 2010
  9. Work to start on Edinburgh's £200m The Haymarket development - 28 November 2013
  10. Haymarket tunnels paves way for 200m development - The Construction Index, 30 July 2014
  11. Delay-hit Haymarket gap site sold for £49 million - Edinburgh Evening News, 5 June 2018
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.