Waverley Steps in 1943

Waverley Steps is a staircase which links Princes Street, Edinburgh and Waverley station.

History

The staircase was opened in 1902 as part of the development of the adjacent North British Hotel (the present-day Balmoral Hotel), which at the time belonged to the North British Railway Company together with Waverley station.[1]

The steps are flanked by original 1902 shops on the east and Waverley Market on the west. Waverley Market was originally a Victorian multi-level structure built on the site of a stone quarry. The original market was demolished in 1974 having become structurally unstable, and redeveloped ten years later as a multi-level underground shopping mall. It has been remodelled several times since then in an effort to increase its popularity, but with limited success.[2]

In 2010 Network Rail, the present owners of the station, replaced the original staircase with new stairs, an escalator and a lift (to the south) and added a weather-proof glass-and-steel canopy. The new steps were opened in 2012.[3] This was primarily to provide disabled access. From 2012 the steps can be closed at the Princes Street entrance when the station is closed.[4]

BFI film

The BFI 30 minute documentary "Waverley Steps (A Visit to Edinburgh)" was made in 1948 directed by John Eldridge and created by Greenpark Productions.[5] Stylistically in borrows on the German expressionism of the 1920s.[6]

It "stars" N K Stroyberg, a Dane living in Edinburgh, who plays a Danish sailor arriving in Leith Docks who explores the city for a day.[7]

The storyline covers a Sunday in Edinburgh. We initially see the Flying Scotsman travelling fast: the train then changes to the "Merlin" (no.27), arriving in the afternoon, and the railway fireman getting off at Dalry, and returning to his young wife in a tenement on the north side of Calton Road via Kings Stables Road.

We see inside and outside several buildings: St Cuthbert's, St Giles Cathedral and Dundas House. There is also a glimpse inside the blacksmith's workshop on Coalhill in Leith (demolished 1991).

The film contains documentary footage of the original Edinburgh Trams on Leith Walk (closed 7 years later)[8] and many streets: Princes Street, Ramsay Gardens, Leith Walk, Commercial Street, Moray Place, George IV Bridge, Jeffrey Street, and Calton Road.

References

  1. ↑ "SimplyFixIt Waverley Steps". SimplyFixIt - We Fix™ Laptops, Macs, iPhones and iPads.
  2. ↑ Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh, by Gifford, McWilliam and Walker
  3. ↑ "Waverley Steps, Edinburgh → Jefferson Sheard Architects". jeffersonsheard.co.uk.
  4. ↑ "Waverley Steps". www.transport.gov.scot.
  5. ↑ "Waverley Steps: a day in Edinburgh". British Film Institute.
  6. ↑ "Waverley Steps · British Universities Film & Video Council". bufvc.ac.uk.
  7. ↑ "Full record for 'WAVERLEY STEPS' (0114) - Moving Image Archive catalogue". movingimage.nls.uk.
  8. ↑ "Lost Edinburgh: Edinburgh Trams 1871-1956". www.scotsman.com.

55°57′10″N 3°11′24″W / 55.952811°N 3.190015°W / 55.952811; -3.190015

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