Shoppers quick march to new stores on Walk

Published on Friday 7 January 2005 14:41

VISITOR numbers to a prestigious Capital shopping street have risen almost 50 per cent in the space of just six months, it emerged today.

A string of new stores in Multrees Walk, the exclusive thoroughfare next to Harvey Nichols on St Andrew Square, are being credited with the surge in shoppers flocking there.

Since the end of June, more than two million people have visited the first new street to be created in the city centre for more than 200 years.

At that point, when official counting in the street began, up to 70,000 visitors a week were being recorded in the Walk.

But at the height of the festive season up to 100,000 shoppers a week were using the street, which provides a pedestrian link between St Andrew Square and the St James Centre.

Harvey Nichols is reporting a massive spin-off from the success of the Walk, with sales in the store over the festive season up around 30 per cent on 2003-4.

The Walk lay empty for around six months following its unveiling by city council leader Donald Anderson in August 2002 and the impact of the terror attacks on the United States the year before was blamed for it struggling to attract tenants over the following 18 months.

But by the end of June last year the street boasted stores including Louis Vuitton, Bagatt, Sole and Emporio Armani, along with Harvey Nichols, which has a side entrance on the Walk.

The next six months brought the opening of other retailers including Vidal Sassoon, Calvin Klein, Proudfoot, Lynx of London and Azendi, along with the prestigious Vin Caffe bar/restaurant run by the family behind the long-established Valvona and Crolla delicatessen on Elm Row.

Agents trying to attract other tenants to the street expect other confirmed retailers such as Daks Simpson, Reiss and Anne Fontaine to open their doors within the next few months.

Only nine out of the 26 units remain empty, with other retailers thought to be in talks, including fashion label Dior.

Steve Spray, director of La Salle Investment Management, who are agents for Cole Pension Properties, developers of both the Harvey Nichols store and the Walk, said:

"We’re obviously delighted that we were getting 100,000 people a week coming here in mid-December, when numbers were at their peak."

Harvey Nichols publicist Annette Lamb said:

"We believe that all the stores that are open on the Walk really complement each other, there’s no real cross-over at all and the opening of all the new stores has worked really well for us."

Francesca Contini, manager of Vin Caffe, which opened in mid-October, said:

"The restaurant has been full virtually every night and there was a great atmosphere here in the run-up to the festive season because we were so busy."

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Retail Consortium said: "The development will deliver benefits for retailers throughout the city centre, enabling Edinburgh to compete more effectively with other destinations."

City centre managers are currently drawing up plans to spend 9 million to open St Andrew Square gardens to the public and create a new through route linking Jenners with Harvey Nichols within the next two years.