It's funny how when you walk the same route for so long, you don't really notice the surroundings or at least many of the changes taking place around you. My daily lunchtime walk is somewhat dictated by my pooch and her various idiosyncrasies. As she gets that wee bit older, her foibles are becoming many and varied, including her unwillingness to embark upon a walk unless certain and particular measures are in place. For example, Daisy insists that more than one human companion be involved in the walk if she is to go beyond the confines of my street. Otherwise, the anchor goes down and heaven and earth could not move her.
Luckily for me, we have a bus stop at the end of our street and when on a solo walk with her, I am able with some coaxing to at least get her to walk to that. However, not one step will she then take past the shelter. You see she knows the bus stop and that if we halt there, we will go on one of her favourite activities: a wee bus journey. It's not just this stop she recognises though, Daisy is quite knowledgeable regarding bus routes and I sometimes wonder when I come in the room and she is sitting next to my open iPad, whether she has a wee browse when no-one is looking.
Anyway, on with the story. Our, now well-trodden routine is to board the bus at the stop along the road from the house and travel a short distance toward town, where we disembark and commence the serious walking part of our journey. This disorientation trick appears to be holding up well, however, I know it is simply a matter of time before Daisy acclimatises and then challenges my pre-eminence in this regard.
Our current walking circuit is from Bruntsfield down towards the canal at Fountainbridge and that is where the changes to the built environment are happening. For so long, the area to the north side of the canal has consisted mainly of swathes of gap spaces, but this is transforming rapidly and since lockdown, new student accommodation has appeared, a new hotel has been completed and is in operation, the new Boroughmuir High School is being extended, only a few years after opening. The old school, just up the road is now teeming with residents in their high-end accommodation. Across the road from the new school and travelling east is an enormous development of premium, rental flats, which may be student accommodation but advertising seems to suggest otherwise. All his happening around me, it seems by stealth.
Our walk then crosses the Western Approach Road as we head toward Haymarket through the charming 'Colony' cottages walkway and down onto Dalry Road/ Haymarket. There I meet further resistance from Daisy. She also loves a train and duly pulls me in hope toward the station. I manage to win her over though and we set off back towards Morrison Street. That is where it all goes wrong.
It has been going on for a good while now, years even when you think about the stabilising and underpinning works, but I imagine other than the architect and planners, no-one will have been fully prepared for the monstrosity that is rising from the ground at the old Haymarket goods yard sited across the road from the station. The enormity of the construction is just now being realised, with the corner office block almost complete and the metal work connecting the already in place multi-story towers. To state that the development is incongruous to its surroundings is a major understatement. I imagine when completed and with retail business and restaurants in place, it may be a popular new venue, but it must be galling for local residents, particularly those in the aforementioned Colonies, whose view will be blighted by the development. However, as is oft repeated, 'this is the price of progress'.
Spirits dampened, our wanderings take us back up the hill to our starting point in Bruntsfield, with its cool, on trend shops, cafes, restaurants and bars. I realise that all is not lost, as someone has decided to contribute toward the benefit of society, and indeed mankind, by opening a new record store. My faith in humanity has been restored (a wee bit anyway).
Turns out Daisy does not like massive out of place construction developments, but does like vinyl. I suppose that is why we are such good companions.
Frank Eardley
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