Tunnel vision for rail passage that's been shut for 150 years

Published on Friday 26 June 2009 23:11

FOR a humble tunnel, it has had a long and chequered history.

Built in the mid-19th century to help provide a railway link between Edinburgh's waterfront and the city centre, the mile-long passage running from Scotland Street to Princes Street notched up barely 20 years' service.

Now, nearly 150 years after it was last open to the public, Scotland Street Tunnel, in the heart of the city's New Town, is to get a new lease of life.

Shelved in favour of an alternative route due to its steep gradient, the tunnel went on to be used to store railway wagons, for the growing of mushrooms, as a home for atomic experiments and as a salvage yard for the restoration of the New Town.

It was pressed into service as an air raid shelter and during the Second World War even became home to a control room for the city's railways, due to its safe, hidden, location under the ground.

Since its closure in the 1970s, several suggestions for its revival have come and gone, including housing a giant boiler to generate power for the city centre, or even deploying it as a car park.

But now plans have been unveiled for a full-scale restoration of the main entrance to the tunnel, to create a new attraction in the Canonmills area. Its bricked-up entrance will be opened within months and made available for everything from exhibitions and theatre shows to youth clubs and music events.

Edinburgh World Heritage is joining forces with a firm of local architects, campaign groups in the area and youth organisations to draw up plans which will be linked with a drive to revamp neighbouring King George V Park.

Plans to revitalise the park came after the police suggested its reuse could help tackle problems with local youth disorder.

Project manager Andrew McRae, of Simon Laird Architects, said: "The tunnel has never really had a public use since it was wound up as a railway line. Although some people in the area know about the tunnel, it's really a completely hidden piece of architecture in the city.

"It is only bricked up at Scotland Street but the tunnel actually runs all the way to Princes Street, although there's no other way to get in or out.

"The idea is to initially get the tunnel open as a kind of bespoke youth shelter and use it as a catalyst for other improvements."

Adam Wilkinson, director of Edinburgh World Heritage, said the tunnel was a "beautiful structure" but a "neglected space."

"We're delighted to be able to support the first stages of work in this excellent led project," he added.

HISTORY

MEASURING 25ft wide and 20ft high, Scotland Street Tunnel runs from close to Platform 19 at Waverley Station under Princes Street, St Andrew Square and Dublin Street.

It was built by the Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway Co to transport trains from the then thriving ports of Granton and Newhaven to Waverley. Although approved by parliament in 1836, it was not built until 1846, because of delays caused by both financial difficulties and objections from New Town residents who did not want a gas-lit tunnel below their homes.

Although it closed to rail passengers in 1868, it was used for a variety of purposes, but has lain vacant since the 1970s, when it was last employed by a local garage to store cars.