The Full Cost of the Mudbath Market

It’s been revealed that the cost of reinstating Princes Street Gardens after Underbelly’s intervention was more than £150,000 – three times higher than previous years. The Herald reports “More than £150,000 was needed to reinstate Edinburgh’s iconic Princes Street Gardens after it was turned into a mud bath by the Christmas market.”

This film Stephen Reynolds made for Citizen puts it in context:

 

CITIZEN from Bella Caledonia on Vimeo.

Comments (13)

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  1. Freda Satow says:

    No more Christmas market on this site. If you really need one, choose another site with a hard surface. Just an excuse for selling tat.
    Christmas is supposed to be a Christian festival, not a commercial, destructive festival of shopping.

    1. Donald McGregor says:

      As a society I think we can agree that Christmas has evolved beyond being a Christian festival – but it would indeed be nice if we could stop aiding the self obsessed commercial retail world turning it into the now-usual commercial, destructive festival of shopping.
      Edinburgh has created a festival monster and it’s increasingly obvious that it does not serve us – it serves others.

      1. R Ritchie says:

        Hear hear. Well said.

    2. Paul says:

      It’s a solstice celebration hijacked by medieval religious extremists.

      1. MBC says:

        No it’s the Roman Saturnalia. A feast of gross excess and misbehaviour.

  2. Mridu Thanki says:

    This is beyond belief. What they the council had done to a amazing space. And from what the councillor is saying it looks like more green spaces will be destroyed.

  3. Anndrais mac Chaluim says:

    Every year, on Silvesternicht during the daft days, we have a muckle bonfire in a cobbled car park off our main street to burn the old year out. Visitors come from miles around to view the spectacle and be a part of the ritual community they form on the night. The pubs and chippies do a roaring trade and various vendors set up stalls from which to sell their tat.

    One of the first things we do in the new year is complain to the Council that the cobbles in the car park are all buckled. We also let it be known to our local councillors that, if the cobbles aren’t fixed, they won’t be allowed back on the next time the democratic carousel comes and they’re obliged to get off. (The annual repair of the car park is only one of the perennial conditions we attach to their re-election.) The Council duly sort/replace the cobbles, providing work for the business that submitted the best bid for the contract and, of course, their employees.

    Some folk do girn about the wanton expense, but they’re mainly ‘Wee Free Churchy’ types, whose gospel has frozen the joy in their hearts; the same crowd that inveigh against bairns skateboarding and generally being heard. The rest of us have a grand time, and the world keeps turning.

  4. Arboreal Agenda says:

    Not been to Edinburgh for a couple of years and I can’t believe what I’m looking at in this video. Sat in these gardens many times and admired the setting and greenery in the heart of the city yet here it looks like the aftermath of the Battle of the Somme, and all for what? Beggars belief. What is the Scottish Government doing / saying about this fiasco?

    1. Kenny says:

      This is the work of Edinburgh council, nothing to do with the Scottish government.

      1. Arboreal Agenda says:

        Are they not accountable to the government?

        There are lots of things about the council in Edinburgh that keep getting very heavily criticised indeed at the moment but who is overlooking them? Surely that would be the government?

  5. Susan Smith says:

    I can’t bear to look at this. How much worse must it be to be there and see it? How could a city allow anyone to assault any part of it so drastically? And for what?

  6. Richard Easson says:

    Shame the Council don’t even seem to have three wise men.

  7. Andy Smith says:

    Not to mention West princes st gardens where access to kings stables rd and the grassmarket seem to be closed off for 6 months of the year due to events at the Ross bandstand and the open area across from the fountain, and the fact that huge boarding is erected along the railings on princes st in case someone who’s not been fleeced for the price of a ticket might catch a glimpse of the “headline” act, and to hell with tourists trying to get some nice photos of the castle.

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