Kingsway Guest House

We (Jane mostly) did a lot of our travel research on-line.  For places to stay, we tend towards small hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, and guest houses.  We found a great one on the broad sloping neighborhood south of central Edinburgh, the Kingsway Guest House, run by Lizzie and Gary Scott.  The area actually supports a large number of tourist facilities.  There were several B+B type lodgings right along with the Kingsway.

Since the construction is all row housing on this block, I’ve put a couple of white lines either side of Kingsway so you can pick it out. On the south slope, and this far north in the world, the developers of this neighborhood laid out a strikingly logical plan: put houses on only the south side of the street with large yards sloping to the south behind them.  So that means that across the street from the view above, you get a completely different type of view.

This view looks north from our room above the street.  Small garages open to the street, but between them and the houses lie large, lush yards – which give the houses a green, sunny outlook to the south.  Since this pattern repeats in many blocks, Everyone benefits from the same type of arrangement.  And I’m sure it’s really appreciated on those occasionally sunny days in December when the sun only gets a few degrees above the horizon, as well as in summer when everyone’s garden grows like crazy.

The rooms in row houses tend to be modest in size.  Ours was no exception; but it had some great features.

It was tall, with a tall window.  The light quality was terrific.  It had interesting detail, in both the wallpaper and the mouldings up near the ceiling.  And it was very comfortably appointed.  Here’s another look at the light quality.

In addition to the size, the window had a fine mesh pull-down curtain that offered privacy and diffused the light.  And on either side of the window, large panel shutters that you could swing out to completely darken the room if you wanted that.  A real study in how a well-detailed window can really make a space.  The other part of an attractive place to stay is the food.  Here’s the dining room.

At Kingsway, the Scotts offered a menu of choices each evening for the following morning’s breakfast – and a ‘special of the day’ each day just to keep things interesting.  On this particular day I opted for the bagels and lox – a well-prepared piece of Scottish salmon.

And just to put faces on the place, here are Lizzie and Gary

I pestered them by asking for a picture while they were still busy in the kitchen; but they were gracious as always – and then got back to keeping their other guests happy.

Edinburgh Overview

Historically and culturally the capitol of Scotland, Edinburgh (ED’n-burrah – and roll those rr’s) sits in a rugged volcanic landscape that dramatically imposes its shape on the city’s layout.  Split by an ancient stream valley – now occupied by both a railroad line and a park – the city presents a clear choice between an old historic town and a more severely planned new town.  Here’s a look at how that works with the old town in dark brown, the new town in medium brown, and a much more recent development area to the west of the center city in ocher.  From the old town area the city has grown to the south on a long, broad slope.  We stayed in this area in the

Kingsway B+B, shown in the lower right-hand corner, about two miles from center city.  The following view looks from the bottom of the map to the north and the ridge running left-right that defines the center of town.

The huge mound to the right is Arthur’s Seat, an old volcanic cone (large green area on the right side of the map), now a park and a very dramatic eastern boundary for the city.  All the way on the left, on a smaller mound against the horizon, sits Edinburgh Castle, in a setting more dramatic the closer you get to it.  The castle connects to Holyrood Palace along “the Royal Mile”, a slightly longer than one mile connection of four streets fronted with a wide variety of historic buildings.  The Palace, the official home of the Queen when she is in Scotland, sits much lower in the landscape (essentially at river level) in a small park and near the very modern Scottish Parliament building.  It’s an interesting urban effect, with the Castle thrust up into the sky on the high end of the see-saw and the Palace and Parliament holding the other end firmly on the ground. Tourist activities definitely focus on the Royal Mile and the streets and lanes that connect to it.  Commercial, financial and mercantile activities all cluster in the new town area, connected by a few key bridges across Princes Street Gardens.  This view looks from the National Gallery across Princes Street Gardens to old town.

And this one looks northeast towards Waverly Station and its related hotel.

The green center is, unfortunately, interrupted by the reality of the rail yard leading to Waverly Station

The tracks go right under the National Gallery.  All of this is also the foreground for a highly sculptured monument to Sir Walter Scott, perched above the gardens, just off Princes Street itself, in an area of fancy department stores.

As a planner I was struck by the opportunity Edinburgh has to turn its slash of railroad tracks into a powerful cultural asset.  By covering the tracks and raising the lower level of the park, the city could gain a center that would unite the old town with the new town and provide at the same time a fantastic central setting for the Edinburgh Festival for which the city is famous.  Unfortunately I only had five days; so I wasn’t able to get that plan implemented (this time).  Next time maybe.

 

St Pancras Station

Having spent 10 very full days in London and environs, we’re off to Scotland.  We’ll go directly from London’s St Pancras Station to Edinburgh for 5 days, then west to the Isle of Arran for a non-urban break, and finally back to Glasgow. First of course we descend deep into the underground for a tube connection from Marble Arch to St Pancras.

Other than occasionally getting confused about whether to keep left or right (the escalators make it pretty clear here) and some crowding at times, we had pretty positive experiences with the London tube system.  It takes a bit of figuring out, mainly because it’s extensive and offers many choices; but it’s generally pretty efficient.

People were courteous and civil.  We felt safe, always important in travel away from home.  The St Pancras Station experience included architectural fireworks.  Here’s a Wikipedia photo of the exterior.

It’s a huge and dramatically Victorian piece of construction, fronted by a five-star London Renaissance hotel and apartments. It opened in 1868 as the prime connection to Yorkshire and the Midlands and was renovated in the 2000’s (at a cost of over $1 billion).  It serves as the London terminus for Eurostar services through the English Channel Tunnel, or ‘chunnel’, to continental Europe.  The building reflects this change in use, both outside and in.  This Wikipedia view shows the new entrance.

We did not see the multiple level and extended platform structures installed to serve Eurostar trains; but we did spend time in the new entrance hall and on its mezzanine.

Architecturally it’s hard to get your hands around the design of this space.  The roof resembles something that Nervi would have designed along with his Olympics structures in Rome; but it bends into a vertical column that comes down to the floor with a dynamism he would not have employed.

This bent form holds the new modern structure away from the earlier building and allows light to flow across the older facade; but the two buildings speak such different architectural languages that the effect is jarring.  This mezzanine provides a place for refreshments as well as an opportunity to step out of the hustle and bustle without losing track of your train.

Interestingly, the very contemporary trains feel at home in the older building, probably because they move in and out and are not part of the architecture.  The mezzanine level also flows towards the platforms across a sky-lighted bridge.

The platform and boarding process were pretty straightforward, though once again we were spoiled by a large vaulted space with skylights to enhance the experience.  (In earlier times the roof would have been open to let out the steam engine smoke).

 

And so on to the Midlands and Scotland.