EDINBORING

SquareOne Opinion

by Dave Hynes

Edinburgh Castle has just been painted pink for the rest of 2008, with a proposed change to deep purple in 2009. Leith Walk will be turned into a blue and yellow Champs Elysee once the tram is finished. Plans to turn the Cowgate a light turquoise are being discussed at Holyrood today. Or maybe not.

I love Edinburgh, I really do. It’s a city that offers so much; culture, entertainment, the arts… battered mars bars. It has some beautiful buildings too, so beautiful in fact the city seems to sparkle with colours of every hue. Well, actually, no it doesn’t because unfortunately Edinburgh is almost uniformly grey. The use of granite may make Scottish buildings practically eternal, but I think the city is in dire need of a facelift.

The architecture of cities often reflects a civic personality and speaks a lot about its citizens and its history. Greyness may say a lot about Edinburgh; hard, proud, no- nonsense, intelligent- even beautiful. But it also says another thing . . . boring! What Edinburgh needs is an Antoni Gaudi to spruce up the place, someone with a vision that goes beyond the dour greyness of Edinburgh’s esteemed edifices. Where is Edinburgh’s imagination? Why do our buildings have to be so serious?

Give me black or give me white, but I’m afraid I’ve had enough of grey. A greyness which in the short winter days kinds of adds to the dourness of the season. Between George IV Bridge and the Royal Mile colour is so scarce it’s as though a grey sheet of architectural fog has descended. Edinburgh has surely one of the greatest cityscapes in the world; Princes St and South Bridge overlook a magnitude of beautiful architecture but my goodness aren’t they mostly grey.

Grey, grey, grey is what Edinburgh is today. Where is Edinburgh’s Pompidou Centre or its Sagrada Familia? Edinburgh’s cityscape needs imprecision and audacity, and most of all it needs humour. In some ways Holyrood Parliament has at least attempted to tickle our funny bone but it’s unfortunately the jokes is a bit s_t.

Colour is light-hearted and I would prefer another architectural catastrophe than a more traditional, sublimely built but dull grey monolith. What Edinburgh needs is a little imagination, and one that goes beyond the trams. We need a facelift, a make-over which looks towards Edinburgh’s future rather than taking pride in its past. We need colour, especially during winter. Edinburgh’s buildings should reflect the vibrancy of life in this city; they should stand out not so much for prestige but for daring and endeavour. Let’s have a bright ochre statue in George St, and a maroon pyramid on Charlotte Square. Let’s turn our theatres bright green and our libraries shining white.

Not everything in life is black and white. But sometimes it should be and in Edinburgh’s case, shades of grey are no compromise at all. Just add colour!

Got any good suggestions for where Edinburgh could do with a lick of paint. Fancy the castle painted like a rainbow during festival time? Should we renovate the Cowgate into deep crimson or how about an ocean blue for Holyrood Palace? Let the SquareOne News team know.

SquareOne - Scottish Cities In A Word

1 Glasgow - mental

2 Edinburgh - grey

3 Aberdeen - cold

4 Dundee - why?

5 Inverness - rural

Photo by absolutwade