Tag Archives: Potterrow

Fringe Time Approaches

Posted on by
Reply

It’s nearly August once more, and in Edinburgh that means the insane frenzy of the festivals: the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Edinburgh International Film Festival, joining the Arts Festival and the already-running Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival.

Wet Reflections On The Fringe 02

It’s unbelievably busy – Edinburgh, as you might expect, is pretty full of visitors year-round, and especially in the spring and summer months, but then add the festival season on top of it, and it bursts at the seams. Simple things like trying to get across town becomes an exercise in frustration for locals trying to get to appointments or work, because the sheer numbers slow the bus service to a slow treacle trickle in the city centre, adding hugely to journey times. When you are off and can enjoy the sheer energy of the festivals, it’s amazing, when you live here and are trying to get to work or to a hospital appointment and it takes twice as long, that’s a bit different!

Wet Reflections On The Fringe 01

Wet Reflections On The Fringe 03

I was walking home from my book group the other evening, through Bristo Square at Edinburgh University. Normally an open space (often filled with skateboarders as well as students and tourists), it was now being set up for the Fringe with temporary venues for food, drink and box offices, while nearby George Square Gardens is filled with temporary theatre structures. It was a rare rainy night – after a lot more hot, sunny weather than we normally get in Scotland, this was a dreich evening of dark, grey clouds and rain. But as I passed the illuminated Fringe show posters, the rain made the lights and colours reflect on the wet pavement, and it was begging for a few photos, so of course I stopped and stood there in the rain to take some pics.

Awaiting The Fringe Crowds 01

Awaiting The Fringe Crowds 02

Awaiting The Fringe Crowds 03

Launch portal

Posted on by

The subway that runs under the road connecting the Potterrow student union to the back of the Old College and the National Museum of Scotland has often caught my eye because of its shape and the perspective it creates. Walking past it at night, though, it made me think of something from an old sci-fi movie – the concrete underpass where the Droogs beat up a man in Clockwork Orange, perhaps.

Portal from Light to Dark

Or, on a lighter note than that, it reminds my geek brain of the fighter launch tubes from the 1970s Buck Rogers, or Battlestar Galactica (albeit a much more monochromatic one!).

Colourful walls

Posted on by

big giant head

Close to the Potterrow Student Union facilities by Edinburgh University there is a section of wall hidden behind some carriageway between the Uni and the back of the National Museum on the other side of the road, mostly just boring concrete and breeze block, which is always covered in graffiti. It seems to be an unofficially official kind of spot for street art in that for years that plain, concrete section behind nicer old buildings has been allowed to remain a spot for street artists to cover. The graffiti on it constantly changes as one new set overpaints older stuff, so every now and then it is worth me having a quick walk past to see if there is anything new. Quite often, disappointingly, it is just large examples of lettering – not bad in itself, some done rather well, but I get rather bored from seeing piles of graffiti that is simply some big 3D lettering, I’d much rather see someone creating some visual art, like these two recent examples I noticed when walking past.

photographer on the wall 02