Edinburgh - Princes Street trams, traffic, animated Valentines RP postcard 1947

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  Princes Street, Edinburgh - shows busy street with trams, cars, people - real photo
• Publisher:  Valentines (221056)
• Postally used:  yes
• Stamp:  George VI 2d orange defin.
• Postmark(s):  Edinburgh 23 July 1947 wavy line
• Sent to:  Mrs L. L. Balls, 12 Sizewell Road, Leeston, Suffolk
• Notes / condition: 

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Image may be low res for illustrative purposes - if you need a higher definition image then please contact me and I may be able to send one.

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NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

I will give a full refund if you are not fully satisfied with the postcard.

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Princes Street is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland, and its main shopping street. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, stretching around 1 mile (1.6 km) from Lothian Road in the west to Leith Street in the east. The street is mostly closed to private cars, with public transport given priority. The street has virtually no buildings on the south side, allowing panoramic views of the Old Town, Edinburgh Castle, and the valley between.

Only the east end of the street is open to all traffic. The bulk of the street is limited to buses and taxis only. During 2009 and again in 2012, parts of the street have been closed to all traffic as part of the Edinburgh Trams construction works.

Princes Street was originally to have been called St Giles Street after the patron saint of Edinburgh.^[1] However, King George III rejected the name, St Giles also being the patron saint of lepers and having association with an edge-of-city slum area of London.The street is named after King George's two eldest sons, the Prince George, Duke of Rothesay (later King George IV) and the Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany.

It was laid out according to formal plans for Edinburgh's New Town, now known as the First New Town. These were devised by the architect James Craig and building began around 1770. Princes Street represented a critical part of the plan, being the outer edge, facing Edinburgh Castle and the original city:""Edinburgh Old Town"". Originally all buildings had the same format: set back from the street with stairs down to a basement and stairs up to the ground floor with two storeys and an attic above. Of this original format only one such property remains in its original form. Through the 19th century most buildings were redeveloped at a larger scale and the street evolved from residential to mainly retail uses. In the 1960s a ""Princes Street Plan"" was proposed, removing all buildings and replacing them with a pro-forma pattern building with first level walkway, theoretically doubling the shopping frontage. The plan was partially put into operation, resulting in a very mixed character to the street. Ironically, two of the new buildings, executed in a brutalist style, are now listed buildings.

During the construction of the New Town, the polluted waters of the Nor Loch were drained, and the area was converted into private gardens called Princes Street Gardens. This was taken over by the Edinburgh Council in the late 19th century, by which time most of the street was commercial and there was no great need for private residential gardens. The width of Princes Street was greatly increased soon after, onto what was the northern edge of the gardens. Due to the much lower position of the gardens this led to the creation of the steep embankment on the north side, still visible today. The gardens are one of the many green spaces in the heart of Edinburgh.

type=real photographic (rp)

theme=topographical: british

sub-theme=scotland

county/ country=midlothian/ edinburgh

number of items=single

period=1945 - present

postage condition=posted