Princes Mall (formerly Waverley Market and later Waverley Shopping Centre) is a shopping centre in Edinburgh, Scotland.
It is located at the east end of Princes Street in the City Centre, next to Edinburgh Waverley railway station. Once home to independent retailers, it now houses mainly high street chain stores, as well as a large food court.
Designed in the early 1980s, it was built with its roof at the street level of Princes Street, with a landscaped plaza at that level, in order to preserve the view from Princes Street across to Edinburgh Castle and the Old Town. It opened as Waverley Market in November 1984, the name referencing the food market that once occupied the site. An official opening by Queen Elizabeth II took place on 25 July 1985.
In the centre's early years the atria were adorned by luxuriant planting and water features, with shoppers descending on escalators from Princes Street through a canopy of trees to the underground plaza.
Major refurbishment in the early 1990s coincided with a change of name to Waverley Shopping Centre. A prominent and popular aspect of the mall introduced at this time was the large water feature which dominated the main atrium and incorporated the 11ft high Herons Dream sculpture. This was removed during refurbishment in the early 2000s when the centre adopted its current name.
The mall suffered a decline in popularity in the early 2000s with 12 of the retail units empty at one stage. Major new lettings to fashion retailers CULT and AB10 may indicate the reversal of this decline helped by the improvements carried out by Network Rail to the Waverley Steps access to Waverley Station by the installation of new stairs and escalators, with a glazed roof, and lifts.
Edinburgh's main tourist information centre is located within the same development. It is accessed through a separate entrance on top of the mall.
Famous quotes containing the words princes, mall, shopping and/or centre:
“If there were two princes in Christendom who had good will and courage, it would be very easy to reconcile the religious difficulties; there is only one Jesus Christ and one faith, and all the rest is a dispute over trifles.”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“Finishing schools in the fifties were a good place to store girls for a few years before marrying them off, a satisfactory rest stop between college weekends spent husband hunting. It was a haven for those of us adept at styling each other’s hair, playing canasta, and chain smoking Pall Mall extra-long cigarettes.”
—Barbara Howar (b. 1934)
“Shopping seemed to take an entirely too important place in women’s lives. You never saw men milling around in men’s departments. They made quick work of it. I used to wonder if shopping was a form of escape for women who had no worthwhile interests.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“Freedom to think our own thoughts, freedom to utter them, freedom to live out the promptings of our inner life ultimated in this convention, was termed a monstrosity of the 19th century. What was it?—the legitimate out-birth of the eternal law of progress. This reformation underlies every other; it is the only healthful centre around which hope of humanity can revolve.”
—Harriot K. Hunt (1805–1875)