My Mum's Birthday Blog - The Meadows

As part of a birthday present to my mum and in preparation for my parents’ visit in September I am going to dedicate a series of Edinburgh-related posts to my mum. And the places she likes from my blog we can then visit in real life.

The Meadows are a big park south of Edinburgh’s city centre and close to Edinburgh University’s main campus. They remind me a lot of the Prinzenpark in Braunschweig, because of all the BBQs, people playing cricket, football, and frisbee, or hanging out, playing music, drinking, frolicking.

The Meadows are a vast green space, surrounded by the typical red brick tenement buildings in the south; Summerhall, a cultural centre where my choir practices and where funky exhibitions are hosted, in the east; Edinburgh’s West End in the west; and the Quartermile development, a mix of very old and very modern looking buildings in the north. Also in the north is a lovely independent book store called Looking Glass Books, which incidentally is also a café. Also in the south is Argyle Place, which will get a mention in a later post.

The Meadows are fortunately positioned in that they catch the sun until late in the evening, and on warm summer nights they are quite lively. And when I pass by on my cycle home after singing or dancing I sometimes wish I had a bottle of wine with me, and pleasant company, and no work the next day.