We need more pavement space on Edinburgh's packed Festival streets

One previous Edinburgh Festival, I was scolded by a resident of a tenement just off the Royal Mile for having the temerity to be sitting on the step outside the door of their close.

I remember bemoaning the negativity of some locals to the annual arts extravaganza and thought they, like Parisians at the height of summer, should just get out of the city - as perhaps many do now, lured by the prospect of rental riches via Airbnb.

Back then, I embraced the full Festival experience for several years before moving to Glasgow - and now see it from a different perspective, as I’m usually coming through to the capital to work rather than play.

The Scotsman’s office is in the thick of it, half way down Princes Street. Leave the building and you’re immediately thrust into the Festival throng, trying to make sense of Edinburgh’s unusual topography and what on earth Old Town and New Town mean in a capital city.

At least the pavements there are wide, but climb The Mound - another street name to bemuse visitors - to reach the Royal Mile and you hit a seething melee of humanity that’s the modern equivalent of a Hieronymus Bosch painting.

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The free-for-all of performers and their budding audiences on the pedestrianised High Street section has become an accepted feature of the Festival Fringe best avoided by those just seeking a through route.

However, I’ve discovered that attempting to negotiate surrounding streets has become equally challenging.

Pedestrians are forced to share one pavement on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh | The Scotsman

Heading south from the Royal Mile, the narrow pavements on South Bridge can get horribly snarled up, especially around bus stops.

But the George IV Bridge option has become just as bad not that everyone is having to share one pavement while the other is closed for work on an adjacent building.

Pedestrians forced to share one pavement on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh | The Scotsman

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So what’s my advice? Ideally, find someone walking as fast as you and stick behind them as they - hopefully! - clear a path through the crowds.

Be prepared to make sudden changes of direction to overtake, but just like in a car, look behind you first to avoid a collision.

But even better, find a quieter route, especially any involving steps because crowds don’t like steps and Edinburgh has lots of them - especially around many Fringe venues.