Word from the Burgh

For most students, fourth year means one thing: dissertation. The Big D looms large straight from the off, and even I, procrastinator extraordinaire, found myself in the library at the beginning of week one, actually looking at books. What I wasn’t betting on was having the relentless thundering of a pneumatic drill accompanying my study session, punctuated every so often by the clang of metal scaffolding and the double glazing-muffled shout of someone in a hard hat and hi-vis vest. Those who were lucky enough to have their iTunes library to hand were probably plugged in to something altogether more conducive to studying. I, on the other hand, was stuck with a soundtrack of the not-so-sweet strains of the ongoing renovations of our university library.

In fact, much of the campus is currently a temporary building site, with walls of blue plasterboard and Portakabins dotted around everywhere you look. During the Fringe, the scaffolding built up around George Square concealed the entrance to a hidden pop-up mojito bar. Sadly the cocktails and loud music are long gone, and have been replaced by discarded coffee cups and over-zealous campaigners thrusting Greenpeace petitions and Snapfaxes in your face.

I suppose I should be used to it to be honest; Edinburgh itself seems to be an eternal building site. Escalating from the hottest topic of debate amongst local taxi drivers to the country’s biggest bugbear, Tram-gate (yes, I heard that groan) is still very much in full swing, with roads all over the city just simply out of use. Even the green expanse of The Meadows, prime location for Yummy Mummy-and-Toddler outdoor yoga classes and unofficial playing field for every society football team at the university (a potentially disastrous combination), hasn’t escaped the apparent development-mania spreading through the city. Don’t get me wrong, the ugly metal frames and trundling JCBs are just precursors to great new things. The newly renovated National Museum of Scotland is a beautiful bright space, fusing the traditional and the contemporary in its design, and that’s without even talking about the collection of brilliant exhibits inside.

Closer to our student hearts, the (in)famous Potterrow, one of Edinburgh University’s student unions, has had something of a facelift. No longer are we forced to perch awkwardly on concrete benches surrounding what may be a fountain, but kind of looks like a urinal; no, now we have lots of sofas, tables (with chairs) and electrical sockets!

Also newly opened at the union is Potter Coffee, yet another place for me to fritter away my student loan on unhealthy volumes of caffeinated drinks. Oh, and how can I forego mentioning the fact that Primark is now open in Edinburgh? After months, no, years of teasing us with its blue and white “COMING SOON” signs, the scaffolding has been peeled away to reveal the shiny new mecca of disposable party wear, so-cheap-they-hurt shoes and gold lamé swimwear.

If free museums, cheap coffee and even cheaper fashion are the outcome, maybe I should just embrace the construction. After all, it could be much worse. A few hundred years ago, in an attempt to contain a particularly nasty outbreak of the plague, the authorities simply sealed off and built on top of much of the Old Town. So really, although the screech of an electric saw doesn’t exactly make researching the politics of Rome in Titus Andronicus any more exciting than it already sounds, I can’t complain. I just don’t think the Tourist Board will be hiring me any time soon: “Come to Edinburgh – it’ll be nice when it’s finished!”