Princes Street Gardens

Princes Street Gardens is a public park in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland, in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle. The Gardens were created in the 1820s following the long draining of the Nor Loch and the creation of the New Town. The Nor Loch was a large loch in the centre of the city. It was heavily polluted from centuries of sewage draining downhill from the Old Town. In the 1840s the railway was built in the valley, and Waverley Station opened in its present form in 1854.

The gardens run along the south side of Princes Street and are divided by The Mound. East Princes Street Gardens run from The Mound to Waverley Bridge, and cover convert|8.5|acre|ha. The larger West Princes Street Gardens cover convert|29|acre|ha|lk=on and extend to the adjacent churches of St. John's and St. Cuthbert's, near Lothian Road in the west.

The Gardens are a popular meeting place in Edinburgh, and play host to regular concerts at the Ross Bandstand, particularly at the city's Hogmanay celebrations.

Monuments

Within the gardens, along the south side of Princes Street are many statues and monuments. Most prominent is the gothic Scott Monument built in 1844 to honour Sir Walter Scott. In East Princes Street Gardens there are also statues of explorer David Livingstone, publisher Adam Black and essayist Professor John Wilson. In the West Gardens are statues of poet Allan Ramsay, reformer Thomas Guthrie, obstetric pioneer James Young Simpson, as well as the Scottish American War Memorial, the Ross Fountain and Bandstand, and a popular floral clock.

Ross Fountain

Ross Fountain is an ornate iron fountain from the mid-19th Century located at the west end of the gardens. Figures depicted on the fountain include mermaids and four females depicting science, the arts, poetry and industry. A final female figure stands at the apex of the fountain.

After being cast in the Durenne Ironworks at Haute-Marne in the early 1860s, it was displayed at The Great Exhibition in London in 1862 where it was seen by philanthropist and gun-maker Daniel Ross, who bought it for the City of Edinburgh. Having been transported in 122 pieces, it arrived in Leith in 1869.

Great deliberation followed as to the most appropriate location for the statue, with it finally being installed in Prince's Street Gardens in 1872. There was notable controversy at the time surrounding the fountain - in particular, Edward Bannerman Ramsay, Dean of the nearby St John's Episcopal Church, described it as "grossly indecent and disgusting".

In 2001 a major refurbishment allowed water to flow again for the first time since 1996.

Ross Fountain is now a Grade B listed structure.

External links

* [http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/internet/Leisure/Parks_and_recreation/Gardens/Premier_Parks/CEC_princes_street_gardens Princes Street Gardens] from Edinburgh City Council
* [http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/ History of Ross Fountain]