THE new owner and developer of Waverley Mall in Edinburgh has unveiled plans for a revamp of the shopping centre.
The Moorgarth Group has submitted proposals for the mall, designed to revitalise the existing roof space and create a new market-style piazza and "natural meeting place", to Edinburgh City Council.
A new entrance is also at the corner of Princes Street and Waverley Bridge which will be created enabling full disabled access, better circulation at the top of Waverley Steps and a doubling of the width of the pavement travelling west towards the Scott Monument.
READ MORE: Battle of the booksellers as Waterstones heads to Stockbridge
Tim Vaughan, chef executive of Moorgarth, which has offices in London and Leeds, said: “Along with the improved roof space, the new entrance and the widening of the pavement on Princes Street are all about establishing a greater sense of arrival into Edinburgh that utilises its unique and very important location."
Waverley Mall began life as the Waverley Market, a Victorian structure which pre-dated the neighbouring Balmoral Hotel and housed many independent fruit and vegetable retailers.
READ MORE: Heritage summit on protecting Edinburgh parks and gardens
The market’s cast iron structure was built in the latter half of the nineteenth century and supported a roof garden above, level with Princes Street.
Over time the space had various uses, playing host to many exhibitions and events through the twentieth century, including car shows and even the circus.
By the 1970s the structure had become unfit to support the gardens above and the market had to be demolished.
READ MORE: Fringe Q&As: Comedian Ramon Rivas on his debut Edinburgh show and navigating love, sex and care
In its place the new, modern Waverley Market was opened in 1984, with popular high street retailers taking the place of the fruit and veg vendors.
This rebuild provides the basic skeleton for the building which still houses the shopping centre to this day.
Since then the mall has undergone several re-brands, being known as the Waverley Shopping Centre, Princes Mall and finally Waverley Mall.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel