Britannia Leith

I recently had cause to visit Leith in Edinburgh. Leith, if you remember was one of those places, like Hartlepool, that bid to be the permanent mooring of the decommissioned Royal Yacht Britannia. As it turned out it was Leith that made the successful bid and I was curious, having seen the tourist road signs, what our Scottish friends had made of this fine ship.

Leith is a particularly run down part of Edinburgh and lies on the Solway coast. The area is undergoing dramatic redevelopment with old tenement blocks standing next to the ubiquitous new blocks of flats not unlike those on our own Marina. The main development is known Britannia Quays, a shopping centre complex which uses the Royal Yacht as its centre piece.

While the Britannia itself is of course very impressive and well worth a visit it on its own, it was the accompanying shopping centre that impressed me most. I travel a lot in the UK and one thing that always strikes me is how little variation there is between the shopping malls of the towns and cities that I visit. Find yourself in the middle of one of these modern complexes and you could literally be anywhere.

The Britannia complex impressed me because for once, someone seemed to have bothered to apply a little imagination in its design.

Externally, the shopping complex was not unlike any other: the usual mix of car parks and block pavement which seems to be all the rage these days. Internally, however, was a revelation. The whole complex had been designed to resemble the decks of a cruise liner. There were four decks in all and when stood at the bottom of the lower deck one could look all the way up to the top deck with balconies or should I call them gangways all around.

All of the usual shops were there but intermingled with them were an assortment of spacious, open-plan eating and drinking places, most of which looked out onto the Solway through panoramic windows. Outside of two of these eating places, there were long, elevated gangways where one could sit and enjoy an alcoholic drink or coffee in the sunshine while gazing out to sea - yes we were lucky to have good weather that day. Sitting at such a height and drinking my latte it, was easy to imagine myself on a cruise liner somewhere out to sea.

One 'Shop' in the mall was in fact a gift shop dedicated to the Royal Yacht. This shop also contained the gangway which led to the Britannia itself which visitors could view for the price of a ticket.

Another facility that caught my eye was an enormous play area consisting of what essentially was the masts and rigging of an old sailing ship. Interestingly enough, this was a 'not just for kids' facility and I could see a number of adults, complete with safety harnesses - the kind you get on artificial rock climbing walls, , jumping from mast to mast in Peter Pan fashion. It was incredibly popular and whoever thought of this facility deserves a medal in my opinion. My only regret is not having taken more pictures of this impressive place but, although I was comfortable taking touristy shots of the Britannia, I felt too self conscious to take pictures of the actual Mall.

When I next looked at our own Marina and its tedious 'could be anywhere' shopping facilities it made me think what an opportunity we have missed to do something similar to Leith. We have everything that they do - including a ship. Instead, only we could have created such a piecemeal collection of so-called retail parks and then separated them by two of the busiest roads in the town. Then again, what a white elephant the Halfords/B&Q retail park turned out to be - I can't even remember its name. what do you think?

Richard Lauder