Walk Up Avenue

Walk-Up Avenue aims to enliven Craigmillar’s High Street and support the broader regeneration investment in the area. It will contribute to Edinburgh’s 20-minute neighbourhood strategy for people across the city to live well locally with amenities available within a short walk or cycle from their homes. The project was funded through the Scottish Government Town Centres Fund alongside funding from the City of Edinburgh Council, Nature Scot, Scotland Loves Local and Cycling Scotland, altogether aiming to enable local authorities to stimulate and support place-based economic investments, encouraging town centres to diversify and flourish, and to create footfall through local improvements and partnerships. The high street had become disjointed with stretches of inactive frontage. To remedy this, New Practice designed a brightly-coloured nine-metre-tall "beacon" made from timber battens to mark the entrance to Walk-Up Avenue. The colourful structure clearly signals a community use, drawing people off the busy main road. It welcomes visitors to the space and opens onto a new planted area of picnic tables for people to gather and rest. Fronting this space is a new commercial unit clad in red powder-coated steel (Greencoat) which will house the local organisation ‘Trade Unions in Community’ activating the high street and linking it to the local community. Additions to the site at Walk-Up Avenue include a flexible events space and green-roofed stage to encourage local neighbourhood groups to programme their own events and use the space creatively. Walk Up Avenue aims to create a welcoming and colourful space for the local community to come together and take ownership of for many years to come.