Princes Street Gardens is a public park in the centre of Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...

. The Gardens were created in the 1820s following the long draining of the Nor Loch

Nor Loch

The Nor Loch, also known as the Nor' Loch and the North Loch, was a loch formerly in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the area now occupied by Princes Street Gardens, which lies between the Royal Mile and Princes Street.- Geological formation :...

 and the creation of the New Town

New Town, Edinburgh

The New Town is a central area of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is often considered to be a masterpiece of city planning, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site...

. The Nor Loch was a large loch

Loch

Loch is the Irish and Scottish Gaelic word for a lake or a sea inlet. It has been anglicised as lough, although this is pronounced the same way as loch. Some lochs could also be called a firth, fjord, estuary, strait or bay...

 in the centre of the city. It was heavily polluted from centuries of sewage draining downhill from the Old Town

Old Town, Edinburgh

The Old Town of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is the medieval part of the city. Together with the 18th-century New Town, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has preserved its medieval plan and many Reformation-era buildings....

. In the 1840s the railway was built in the valley, and Waverley Station

Edinburgh Waverley railway station

Edinburgh Waverley railway station is the main railway station in the Scottish capital Edinburgh. Covering an area of over 25 acres in the centre of the city, it is the second-largest main line railway station in the United Kingdom in terms of area, the largest being...

 opened in its present form in 1854.

The gardens run along the south side of Princes Street

Princes Street

Princes Street is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, and its main shopping street. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, stretching around 1 mile from Lothian Road in the west to Leith Street in the east. The street is mostly closed to private...

 and are divided by The Mound

The Mound

The Mound is an artificial hill in central Edinburgh, Scotland, which connects Edinburgh's New Town and Old Town. It was formed by dumping around 1,501,000 cartloads of earth excavated from the foundations of the New Town into the drained Nor Loch which forms today's Princes Street Gardens. The...

. East Princes Street Gardens run from The Mound to Waverley Bridge, and cover 8.5 acres (34,398.3 m²). The larger West Princes Street Gardens cover 29 acres (117,358.9 m²) and extend to the adjacent churches of St. John's and St. Cuthbert's, near Lothian Road in the west.

The Gardens are a popular meeting place in Edinburgh, and play host to regular concerts at the Ross Bandstand, particularly at the city's Hogmanay

Hogmanay

Hogmanay is the Scots word for the last day of the year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year in the Scottish manner...

 celebrations.

Monuments

Within the gardens and running along the south side of Princes Street are many statues and monuments. Most prominent is the gothic

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 Scott Monument

Scott Monument

The Scott Monument is a Victorian Gothic monument to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott . It stands in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh, opposite the Jenners department store on Princes Street and near to Edinburgh Waverley Railway Station.The tower is high, and has a series of viewing decks...

 built in 1844 to honour Sir Walter Scott

Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....

. Within East Princes Street Gardens there are statues of explorer David Livingstone

David Livingstone

David Livingstone was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr...

, publisher Adam Black

Adam Black

Adam Black was a Scottish publisher, and founded the A & C Black publishing company.Black was born in Edinburgh, the son of a builder, and educated at the Royal High School. After serving as an apprentice to a bookseller in Edinburgh and London, he began business for himself in Edinburgh in 1808...

 and essayist Professor John Wilson

John Wilson (Scottish writer)

John Wilson of Ellerey FRSE was a Scottish advocate, literary critic and author, the writer most frequently identified with the pseudonym Christopher North of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine....

. In the West Gardens are statues of poet Allan Ramsay, reformer Thomas Guthrie

Thomas Guthrie

Thomas Guthrie D.D. was a Scottish divine and philanthropist, born at Brechin in Angus . He was one of the most popular preachers of his day in Scotland, and was associated with many forms of philanthropy - especially temperance and Ragged Schools, of which he was a founder.He studied at Edinburgh...

, obstetric pioneer James Young Simpson

James Young Simpson

Sir James Young Simpson was a Scottish doctor and an important figure in the history of medicine. Simpson discovered the anaesthetic properties of chloroform and successfully introduced it for general medical use....

, as well as the Scottish American War Memorial

Scots American War Memorial

The Scots American War Memorial or Scottish American War Memorial is in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh. It was called "The Call", and it was erected in 1927 and shows a kilted infrantyman looking towards Castle Rock. Behind the main statue is a frieze showing queues of men answering the call...

, the Ross Fountain

Ross Fountain

Ross Fountain is an ornate iron fountain from the mid-19th Century located at the west end of Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh. Figures depicted on the fountain include mermaids and four females depicting science, the arts, poetry, and industry...

 and Bandstand, and a popular floral clock

Floral clock

A floral clock or flower clock is a large decorative clock set into a flower bed in a park or other public recreation area.The floral clock was a form of carpet bedding set onto an operational clock-face, invented in 1903 by John McHattie of Edinburgh Parks in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh and...

.

Winter Wonderland

Every year, in the weeks leading up to Christmas

Christmas

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

, the Princes Street Gardens are transformed into 'Winter Wonderland'. This includes a variety of amusement park rides and the Christmas Market; which has food and gifts from all around the world. The most notably attractions are the ice rink and the 33 metre (108 feet) high Ferris wheel, often dubbed 'The Edinburgh Eye'. Also during this time, a number of nearby theatres host pantomime

Pantomime

Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...

 and other Christmas/Winter plays. Notable theatres included are the Edinburgh Playhouse

Edinburgh Playhouse

The Edinburgh Playhouse is a former cinema in Edinburgh, Scotland which now hosts touring musicals and music concerts. Its capacity is 3,059, making it the UK's largest working theatre in terms of audience capacity....

 and the King's Theatre

King's Theatre, Edinburgh

The King's Theatre was opened in 1906 and stands on a prominent site on Leven Street in Edinburgh. It is one of Scotland's historic and most important theatres...

.

External links

• Princes Street Gardens from Edinburgh City Council
• History of Ross Fountain
• A list of Community Gardening Projects in Edinburgh