Our Town

The Scotsman Steps have been closed for some time now. They link Market St at the back of Waverley Station with North Bridge - and entrances to various levels of the old Scotsman newspaper HQ - and had become through neglect little more than a public toilet for the less-scrupulous of Edinburgh's men.

They've been renovated, turned into an art installation (Martin Creed's marble steps) and re-opened last month.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/features/Stepping-out-The-Scotsman-Steps.6789673.jp

I had forgotten the ECA exhibitions that used to be held there.
"Hicks also points out that 2011 won't mark the first time the Scotsman Steps have been used to display art. "From the 1950s to the 1980s the Edinburgh College of Art used to run a competition with The Scotsman and the winning works would be displayed on the steps," he says. "That just shows how different they were then ? they were considered a grand place where you could exhibit art."

I went down them today: very beautiful marble, great to see the ironwork on the window-spaces and gates, and the views of the station and the bridge.

But already - unless someone with a rather sad sense of humour has been pouring water into various corners - attracting unwelcome attention.