Poetry

Following a second round of public consultations in late November, we await with interest a new planning application from Ediston and Orion Capital Managers to develop the site bounded by Dundas Street, Eyre Place, King George V Park and Fettes Row/Royal Crescent.

We expect to see latest proposals for the New Town Quarter later this month.

Local resident, playwright, poet and Edinburgh's first makar Stewart Conn has lived alongside the disruptive demolition here since work began in 2022.

The state of Edinburgh’s public realm in general and Picardy Place in particular have come in for a lot of criticism lately.

As an experiment, we wondered whether a mix of sunshine, poetic perspective and positive thinking might change the way we feel about Broughton's newly created Fantasy Island.

See what you think.

If you find yourself on the path between Five Ways Junction and Lower Granton Road anytime soon, whap oot your smartphone and hae a wee swatch at this sign by the entrance to East Trinity Road Tunnel.

The QR code links to a spoken poem: ‘No Birds Land’, by Tamsin Grainger.

It’s about birds: their song, their chirps and chirrups, their presence or disturbing absence in this echoing drip-lined passage.

It is distinctly odd. Stuttering. Repetititve. Alliterative. Bird-ish. Occasionally squawky.