'We call it a private garden, but it is our back garden'
'We call it a private garden, but it is our back garden'
Behind the locked gates of Edinburgh's beautifully manicured private gardens
After the endless rain last month, Spring has finally sprung, glowing verdant leaves and golden gorse flowers seem to have burst out all at once. This time of year it’s particularly wonderful to live in a city with so much greenspace. However, it might surprise you to know that, as a percentage of its total area, Edinburgh has less greenspace than Dundee or Glasgow - and ranks lowest of Scotland’s large cities for publicly available greenspace.
Swathes of Edinburgh’s New Town gardens are not open to the public. The largest and most central of these are Queens Street Gardens, which cover around eight hectares, roughly the same size as 20 average football pitches or eight times that of Murrayfield’s rugby pitch. They are followed in size by Regent, Royal and Carlton Terrace Gardens on Calton Hill (5 hectares), Dean Gardens by the Water of Leith (3 hectares) the Moray Feu Gardens in the West End (combined 1.5 hectares), Charlotte Square (1.3 hectares), and Drummond Place Gardens off Dundas Street (1.2 hectares). To save you doing the maths, that adds up to around 50 football pitches in total.
They are, to be fair, not owned by single individuals. Ownership models vary, but essentially these greenspaces are communally owned by the proprietors of neighbouring buildings. Most proprietors rent out keys to residents in surrounding streets for a fee of between £50 and £170. But the proprietors are not obliged to do this; the Moray estate proprietors write on their website that renting residents “don’t have responsibility to support the gardens. As a result, they don’t have a right to use the gardens…” Some proprietors are selective with who they let into their gardens: Drummond Place Garden, for example, is only open to renters who are “one single family.” This is apparently a stipulation of the 1823 Charter which dictates the rules of the New Town Gardens, however other gardens don’t seem to mention it. The “no multiple occupancies” rule, in Edinburgh’s rental market, excludes not only students, but most single adults.
My gut reaction, seeing acres of land cut off from the general public, is to say “bring the fences down!” Maybe it’s because I am young and naive, maybe it’s because I’m a bit of a socialist, maybe it’s because I truly adore nature and I’m very aware that most of Scotland’s nature requires money or a car to get to. Maybe it’s just nostalgia as someone who spent endless sunny Saturdays as a teenager playing frisbee by the fountain of Princes Street Gardens West (which I was shocked to discover used to be a private garden).
But in the interest of good journalism, and proper debate, I went out to see what’s actually going on in these gated gardens that I walk past every day, and to work out why they still exist. And after stripping away the needless attachment to keeping things the way they have always been, or an insistence (which I genuinely don’t understand) that nature is more enjoyable the less people are in it, I think the relevant debate is two-fold.
Semantics: is it a park or a garden?
Since 2003, Scots have proudly had the “Right to Roam” throughout the country - even in urban areas like Edinburgh this led to more public right of way paths, better access to golf courses and other improvements in local access. It did not, however, lead to increased access to the New Town gardens. This is reportedly because it was decided that the gardens are the equivalent of a shared back garden - only they’re in the front.
“We call it a private garden but it's our back garden,” said Dr. Lynne Robertson, one of six proprietors who volunteers to manage the Queen Street Central Garden, “to say one should roam in somebody’s garden is to say I could go to your house and just walk across your back lawn… the private bit kind of misunderstands, because it is a garden it’s a community garden is the way I see it.”
The Open Parks campaign argues, on the other hand, that anything over one hectare is a park, not a garden, and should be accessible to the public.
So what makes something a garden, or a park? While it is true that many of the members of private gardens live in properties without any garden, that’s not the case for all of them. In a garden surely you might be able to plant things yourself, too. In Queen Street Garden Central this wasn’t necessarily the case; and probably for good reason. While she is open to any of the keyholders lending a hand or suggesting plants they would like to see, the aesthetic and ecological value of Queen Street Central Gardens is largely down to Robertson’ expert curation of the space. Many of the gardens have the deliberate look of a park; the Royal Terrace Gardens has gravel paths, bridges, and even landscaping to give the impression of continuous grass to the top of Calton Hill.
One of the greatest disadvantages of urban apartments is living without a little patch to call your own - to grow vegetables in, invite the friends for a barbecue, or sunbathe undisturbed. But, considering the management structure, size and appearance of the New Town “gardens,” they don’t seem to offer any of those things. If it looks like a park, sounds like a park, and feels like a park- it’s a park, surely?
A boost for biodiversity?
Queen Street Gardens Central contains fabulous biodiversity; alongside hundreds of species of flower, there is a hedgehog habitat, a section specifically for insects, banks of native plants - all grown organically. For the managing committee of Queen Street Garden, who rent keys out to anyone resident in a large catchment between Queen Street and Fettes Row, restricting access is all about preserving nature, not shutting themselves off from the outside world. Robertson believes that Queen Street Gardens’ biodiversity could not survive in publicly open gardens with high footfall. “It’s amazing to have something so undisturbed, because it’s in community ownership… our view is we are here to preserve these gardens for the next generation.”
There are examples in Edinburgh of parks suffering from high public use; just a few months ago we published an article about the problems of erosion on Calton Hill, and the damage done to Princes Street Gardens by Edinburgh’s Christmas is visible every year. But Councillor Val Walker, Convenor of the Culture and Communities Committee, argues that “it is possible for parks and greenspaces to be open to the public and to be well-maintained, as well as protecting and enhancing biodiversity. This is already the case in many of the public parks and greenspaces in the city which are maintained by the Council.”
While there are some well-maintained private parks, and some overused public parks, examples abound of the opposite case. Look at Saughton Park, which has a huge variety of wildflowers, roses, and medicinal plants. According to its former manager, a key to protecting the park from damage was actually to widen access, particularly by getting local children involved in planting and maintaining the gardens. Few would disagree with Robertson when she says that “when people have a sense of ownership and belonging of something they will look after it better than if it is somebody else’s responsibility.” But this can be achieved in other ways than yearly access memberships- the Friends of Saughton Park group, for example, costs £1 membership for life.
And on the other hand, it’s not only public parks which are subjected to the strain of hosting events regularly; Charlotte Square is visibly degraded, has hosted many a Book Festival, and is still locked and gated.
The bottom line
There is, of course, always the question of money. “It's a privilege to have a garden but there's also responsibility. We have responsibility financially to look after it but also responsibility for future generations,” said Dr. Roberton, explaining that 50% of the cost of the upkeep of Queen Street Gardens Central comes directly from the owners of the surrounding buildings, while the other half comes from keyholder subscriptions. It is unlikely that Edinburgh Council, with an already squeezed budget, could take on all of the New Town Gardens.
However there are ways to improve access to the New Town Gardens without a full Council buy-out. East Circus Place has opened membership outside of a strict catchment area; while there is still a financial barrier to entry, this at least reduces elitist selection of the kind of person or household who can access the gardens. Many of the Parks hold open days; the Moray Feu Gardens open day is on 19th May, for example; why not make open access days weekly or monthly?
In St Andrews Square an agreement was reached where upkeep is paid for by the private owners of the land, while access is completely open. London Road Gardens are leased to the Council by the private owner on the condition that they are well-maintained and no trees are removed without consent. Cllr Val Walker said that “Providing any open space for public enjoyment is a success, and especially within the city centre. We welcome working with any group or organisation who want to open up their gardens to the wider public on a permanent basis.” She also clarifies that any such opening will be carefully thought out; that agreements like this can take time, and should be carefully thought out. “It is… important to have flexibility in what is or is not allowed to take place on land that transfers into public use, and set out clearly who has the necessary decision-making powers and who is responsible for maintenance.”
Would the parks of the New Town still look so wonderful if they were opened to the public? Would private owners still put so much effort and money into their maintenance if they knew the gardens were open to a greater risk of vandalism? Would the Gardens inevitably be overwhelmed by summer tourism and pop-up Fringe venues, or would they bring more foot traffic to struggling businesses in the New Town? It’s difficult to tell. But I can’t say I was convinced that a private ownership committee does any better than a Friends group at managing greenspaces. So with regards to this garden fence, I’m staying firmly on the open-access side.
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Sarah, an interesting piece thank you. St Andrew Square and public access to it took many years of negotiation between the owners and CEC, it is now managed by Essential Edinburgh. Without doubt giving access to these gardens has been transformational for the New Town. However, this access does not come for free as being privately owned but with public access, trees must be regularly checked and maintained, the flower beds tended, water feature serviced, people are lazy and cut corners wearing away the grass which has to be replaced and of course it has 3rd party insurance. The rent from the coffee pavilion largely covers the routine costs but not capital projects such as renewing the path lighting. Public access has been great but it comes at a cost.
You ask three questions in the last paragraph. In my opinion the answers are no, no and yes. Private property rights should be respected.