St Andrew Square Poetry

Essential Edinburgh continues to improve the look and feel of the city centre with a bold and striking initiative at St Andrew Square.

The designated poetry garden has a number of buildings around it currently undergoing improvements works. While they remain vacant Essential Edinburgh has worked with a number of partners to improve their appearance and at the same time celebrate the city's literary heritage.

Massive, colourful displays have been fitted in the windows of buildings in St Andrew Square and South St David Street with quotes about Edinburgh from famous literary figures. The project has been kindly supported by the owners of the buildings, Stockland, as well as the City of Edinburgh Council and the Destination Edinburgh Marketing Alliance (DEMA). The quotes were sourced by the Scottish Poetry Library and the Unesco City of Literature Trust.

The banners include eulogistic quotes from luminaries of literature such as GK Chesterton, Robert Louis Stevenson, Alexander McCall Smith, Iain Crichton Smith and the city even gains the approval – albeit conditional – of Oscar Wilde (“It is quite lovely – bits of it”).