The Daily Telegraph - 06.08.2019

The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 6 August 2019 *** 21

‘Local produce is

what people are

looking for. We know

all our suppliers’

FEATURES

I

t’s a rainy pre-Fringe festival

day in Edinburgh and the skies

above the striking Georgian

buildings are unseasonably

menacing. But the tourists are

equipped with macs and

brollies, and although it is quieter

than usual on the streets, there are

plenty who remain undeterred.

Many have arrived from overseas,

flying into Edinburgh Airport and

riding into town on the tram, a

five-year-old addition to the city’s

transport infrastructure that cost a

controversial £776 million.

There were locals who grumbled

that you could have paved the whole

tram route with gold for a fraction of

its cost. But for those who have

profited from Edinburgh’s ongoing

success, the streets of this great

historic city are already, in a sense,

paved with gold.

At the end of last year, Edinburgh

came top in a table of the “healthiest”

high streets nationwide compiled by

the Royal Society for Public Health

(London was assessed separately).

The rankings were based on the

number of a centre’s healthy

indicators – its leisure centres,

libraries, museums, art galleries,

cafés and even pubs and bars (which

are good at aiding social interaction).

High streets were marked down for

their number of empty shop units.

Further good news for Edinburgh

followed in January, when the city

topped a UK Vitality Index compiled

by Lambert Smith Hampton, a

property consultancy. Its prospects

for economic growth this year were

deemed to be the best in the country.

So while high streets all over the

UK are increasingly facing tough

times amid a change in our retail

habits (among other things), the

Scottish capital is bucking downward

trends seen elsewhere.

In the fourth and final part of our

series on the state of the high street,

we explore the different factors

behind this, starting with its booming

tourist industry. “Edinburgh is a

tourist centre, so that helps to keep

the shops doing well,” agrees Neil

Gardiner, an SNP councillor in the

city. Its World Heritage Centre status

and beautiful

architecture

could probably

keep it going

alone; but when

you throw in its

role as host of the

world’s largest

arts festival every

August, you have

a guaranteed

footfall of

millions, all with

money to spend

in the local

economy.

Tourism is

only one part of

what lies behind Edinburgh’s

success. The city’s banking sector,

boosted by the discovery of North

Sea oil in the Seventies, has made it a

major financial centre, where legal

and insurance firms, higher

education and a growing tech sector

all add to the picture of prosperity.

This does not mean Edinburgh

retailers have no worries. Ewan

MacDonald-Russell, head of policy

and external affairs at the Scottish

Retail Consortium, says the city’s

cultural attractions “give it a bit of

insulation from those [national]

trends”. But, he adds, “that’s not to

say it’s not struggling. [It has]

problems of high business rates and

so forth, but because of those other

factors, it is lifted up.”

The nature of its retail offering has

also helped to protect it to some

extent, he believes.

“We’ve seen online sales rising

across Scotland and it’s just as true in

Edinburgh as elsewhere, but because

Part four:

Britain’s healthiest

high street

Rosa Silverman visits

Edinburgh to find out

the secrets to its

success and how it is

future-proofing itself

Welcome to the boom town that bounced back

HI GH STREET

you’ve got that

range [of shops]

and people are

prepared to come

into Edinburgh

and look for

things, have a day

out and do a bit of

shopping, it’s

different from

other places.

There’s also

investment in the

city. There’s

confidence.”

Indeed, the

diversity of its

economy helped

the city bounce

back from the

2008 banking crisis quicker than

some, and development now

continues apace. At the bottom of

upmarket Multrees Walk, where a

branch of Harvey Nichols neighbours

other designer chains on the site of

what used to be a bus station, cranes

loom up into the mist. They are

building the new Edinburgh St James

centre, which is due to open next year,

promising 85 retail units across five

levels; 850,000 extra square feet of

retail, food and leisure space in total.

This looks like the stuff of boom times

• a signal of hope, and of money.
  Yet not all of
  the city’s
  independent
  retailers are
  celebrating
  consistent good
  fortunes. “It’s up
  and down, to be
  honest,” says
  Frieda Crehan, a
  shop assistant at
  The Dragonfly gift
  shop on
  Broughton Street.
  “During the
  Fringe [festival]
  it’s quite busy. A
  lot of tourists
  come in. A day like today is quieter.
  People have found it difficult in the
  past couple of years so are trying to do
  anything to get people to shop locally.”
  Online retail is part of the problem,
  she agrees, adding: “I don’t know if
  Brexit is anything to do with it [too]


• people being a bit cautious about
  spending money.”
  On the other hand, some of the
  shops that were once seen on every
  high street in the country, but today
  are something of
  a rarity, appear
  well-equipped to
  survive here. On
  the curving,
  cobbled Victoria
  Street, said to
  have been the
  inspiration for
  Diagon Alley in the
  Harry Potter
  books, a^
  family-owned
  cheesemonger is

CHRISWATT.COM

EDINBURGH

SUCCESS STORIES

� Edinburgh

International

Festival and

Festival Fringe

� Edinburgh St

James to open

in 2020 –

£1 billion

investment

combining

retail, leisure,

cultural, gastronomic or leisure-

based. Internet retail poses an

enormous, continuing threat to the

high streets of old that once lay at the

centre of communities. But there is

evidence to suggest that bricks and

mortar shops that offer two highly

prized things – authenticity and

sustainability – will have a place.

Public space is being redefined; in

some places, it has suffered

degradation in recent years, but they

are now fighting back. Others have

been running to stand still. But all

have human nature on their side: our

instinct to seek company and

community means those centres

with resources and imagination can

still offer something that we want.

250

Pubs

and bars

68

Shop closures

in 2018

3.6%

Unemployment

rate in 2018

464,990

Population

£27,681

Average

salary for

full-time jobs

doing good

business. Mathieu

Cruz, the

fashionably

bearded French

manager of

I J Mellis, a

purveyor of fine

farmhouse and

artisan cheeses

since 1993, says the

local produce they

supply “is obviously

what people are

looking for”.

“More natural

products as well,

and easier to trace.

We know the

cheese suppliers

and the milk suppliers. We have

probably the biggest selection of

Scottish cheese in Edinburgh, and

there’s a very big demand.”

About a mile south-west of the city

centre, in the pleasant neighbourhood

of Bruntsfield, a family-owned butcher

called W M Christie has been running

for 130 years. The original Victorian

tiling still adorns the walls today,

according to owner Angus Linton,

whose father bought the business 55

years ago from the first owner.

“Business is always the same here,”

he says. “We have busy spells and then

it quietens down over the summer.”

Pointing towards the opposite wall, he

adds: “The next butcher in that

direction is more than 30 miles away.”

He prides himself in selling meat

that’s cut fresh every day: “We get

whole lambs and pigs in, and process it

all ourselves.” He shrugs off the

suggestion of a rise in vegetarian and

vegan diets, insisting that it has not

had an effect.

Others have been less successful.

Linton says rates were doubled last

year, and several local businesses in

Bruntsfield were forced to close.

Edinburgh suffered a net loss of 32

shops in 2018, according to

professional services firm PwC.

Sixty-eight closed, but 36 new ones

opened, including Nordic Living By

Biehl, a trendy Scandi furniture store

that offers something different to the

traditional tweed

and tartan that

have kept other

indie shops going.

“We try to do a lot

on social media,”

says Sofie Biehl

Kleberg, one half

of the husband

and wife team who

own it.

Meanwhile, the

role of the high

street continues to

be the subject of

debate here as

elsewhere. “We’re

currently not

complacent because there’s a lot of

change in the overall retail

environment,” says Cllr Gardiner.

“Online shopping is changing the

game, so we really need to look at

whether we have more leisure use

alongside retail. That can really help

the retail side. I think we need to look

again at the balance there.”

In other words, the healthiest high

streets of the future will likely be those

that provide experiences, be they

Mathieu Cruz says

there is a big

demand for local

produce

Mogens and Sofie

Biehl Kleberg

relocated from

Copenhagen

Angus Linton says

doubling rates has

forced some

shops to close

A mix of culture,

heritage, leisure

and food has

helped the city

Edinburgh attracts

tourists from far

and wide, who

support retail

hotel and

residential

� Edinburgh

Business

Improvement

District –

projects include

Clean Team to

improve

aesthetics of city

centre and

marketing

campaign to

promote it

� Amazon to

open Clicks and

Mortar pop-up

store, putting a

number of small,

online

businesses on

the high street

� Edinburgh and

South East

Scotland City

Region Deal

• £1.3 billion
  investment from
  public, private
  and third sector
  for housing,
  innovation,
  transport, skills
  and culture

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