Fishmarket Square

Route Stop #14

Next Stop -#15 Main Street (West)
Overview East Side West Side Public Houses Public Standpipes
LEFT: St Andrew's Square, now Fishmarket Square. RIGHT: 3_7017 Road access was open to the Fishmarket and was a bus route in this picture from 1968.

Formerly St Andrew's Square

In the days when Newhaven’s prime thoroughfare was Main Street, full of shops and houses and bustling with people, this square was called St Andrew’s Square.  Its north side was open to the Harbour, Fishmarket and The Hally. For most of the 20th century, a tram service from the east ran along Main Street to this square then down through its centre before turning left to run along Pier Place towards a tram junction at the foot of Craighall Road and on to Granton.

Main Street Bypassed

During — and due to — redevelopment in the 1960s and 70s, Lindsay Road was extended along the old seafront to meet Pier Place, so by-passing Annfield and Main Street.  Stone walling and plant boxes were built and trees planted to define the north boundary of the square thus creating the attractive edge we have today.

In 1968, however, the Edinburgh City fathers changed the name of St ANDREW’S Square (after the church on Pier Place) to Fishmarket Square to prevent its original name being confused with  Edinburgh New Town’s St ANDREW Square of the end of George Street.  (It would appear that the City Fathers feared that Newhaveners couldn’t cope with an apostrophe!)

3_7014 St Andrew's Square had direct access to Pier Place until Lindsay Road, the road to Leith, was extended in 1972. Courtesy of The Liston Legacy

Redevelopment

In the days when Newhaven’s prime thoroughfare was Main Street, full of shops and houses and bustling with people, this square was called St Andrew’s Square.   New blocks of council house tenements were built in their place but in designs not sensitive to the original character of Newhaven (as illustrated in the picture below).  The public uproar resulting from this insensitive development resulted in a resolve to attempt a more sensitive treatment and refurbishment of the buildings on the north side of Main Street with their forestairs and lanes between to ensure the original character of old Newhaven would be retained.

3_7015 The right-hand side of St Andrew's Square, looking north. Courtesy of The Liston Legacy
3_9301 St Andrew's Square, now Fishmarket Square, looking south towards Main Street
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