Haymarket, Edinburgh

Haymarket junction

Haymarket (Scots: Heymercat,[1] Scottish Gaelic: Margadh an Fheòir)[2] is an area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is in the west of the city and is a focal point for 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 M9 for Stirling and the north), and Shandwick Place (leading east to Princes Street and the city centre).

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

In the centre of the crossroads at the heart of Haymarket was a war memorial for former players of Heart of Midlothian F.C. who died in World Wars I and II; the memorial was in the form of a clock (The memorial was meant to commemorate ALL the sportsmen from Edinburgh who lost their lives. However for unknown reasons it only commemorates those Hearts players who died). At one time, clocks were a feature in the centre of a number of Edinburgh crossroads. The memorial was temporarily removed about 2010 to allow construction of the tramway across the road junction. THE CLOCK MEMORIAL is now back in a very slightly different position. Took a long time to get it back, it now sits outside the Hamarket bar diagonally opposite to Ryries at this busy Junction.

Transport interchange

The newly redeveloped Haymarket railway station[3] 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. Services from West Lothian are operated by First Scotland East who also run an express from Falkirk. Express coach connections from Strathclyde 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.[4] 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.[5] 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.[6]

A revised planning application, incorporating a similar mixed use, with a lower skyline, was approved by the Council in December 2010.[7] 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.[8] 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 is 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.[9] Above-ground construction is scheduled to start in early 2015 and the first phase is expected to be complete by 2016. 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 January 22, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba ~ Gaelic Place-Names of Scotland
  3. ↑ Haymarket Station officially opened - 19 December 2013
  4. ↑ "Haymarket hotel proposal approved". BBC. 25 June 2008.
  5. ↑ Richard Murphy Architects
  6. ↑ Skyline is the limit as plans for £250m hotel thrown out - Edinburgh Evening News, 28 October 2009
  7. ↑ Planners give new Haymarket gap site proposal thumbs-up - Edinburgh Evening News 3 December 2010
  8. ↑ Work to start on Edinburgh's £200m The Haymarket development - 28 November 2013
  9. ↑ Haymarket tunnels paves way for 200m development - The Construction Index, 30 July 2014

Coordinates: 55°56′46.54″N 3°13′0.72″W / 55.9462611°N 3.2168667°W / 55.9462611; -3.2168667

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