Looking to the north down Leith Street from the pedestrian bridge over the street

Leith Street

1975 and 2011

Thank you to Alex Jackson for sending the two photos above that he took of Pleasance, 36 years apart. Both photos look to the north down Leith Street.

The first was taken from an early pedestrian bridge over Leith Street from the newly-developed St James Centre. Proposed development on the east side of Leith Street did not go ahead at the time so the bridge became known as the 'bridge to nowhere'.

Over the past decade, construction has gone ahead as the second photo shows. A new bridge was built in 2003.

It is from this bridge that the second photo was taken.

Between 1975 and 2011:

- Most of the grass that can be seen in the first photo has been covered by new developments:

- on the left: an extension to the John Lewis Store

- on the right: new offices, and (hidden in this view) beyond them, the new OMNI cinema complex.

- The roundabout at the top of Broughton Street remains, though it is mostly hidden by the John Lewis extension in the second photo.

In the first photo the 'kinetic sculpture', can be seen in the middle of this roundabout. It was designed to glow in different colours that changed with the wind, but it only worked for short periods.

There are now proposals to possibly build a new hotel where this roundabout stands, as part of the plans to redevelop the St James Centre.