This article is another case of us preparing an article to be published whilst away on holiday and then things changing so it was more or less out of date before it was even published! The last part of the first series of “Stop by Stop: Edinburgh Trams” featured Picardy Place and we mentioned in that article that things were a bit constricted around the stop with public realm works ongoing at the traffic island – and then it reopened with the Sherlock Holmes statue put in place too! We bring things up-to-date with this pictorial article.
The Sherlock Holmes statue is now in a new position (it was first erected in 1991 on the opposite side of the road) which is virtually on the site of the tenement where Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes of course) was born in 1859. Its in the foreground of this photo as 261 is seen pulling into the stop from the Newhaven direction. The Playhouse Theatre is seen in the right background.
261 is still at the tramstop before it heads off to the Airport. Sherlock Holmes obviously isn’t a tram spotter as he has his back to the tramway! The Holiday Inn Express is to the right of the scaffolding advert. (Photographs x2 by Roy Calderwood, 21st September 2023)
The barriers show that some work does still remain to be completed here but access is now far better than it was. 266 is at the stop in this photo. (Photograph by Robin Barnes, 22nd September 2023)