Watching your town centre and community change shape day-by-day doesn’t happen often, but that’s exactly what is happening right now in Elgin. It’s quite something to watch the layers of history being peeled back and revealing long-lost parts of local heritage. When I’ve been walking to work along South Street I might be able to see right into the back of what has been an abandoned building one day, or an old sign from a long-lost business.
When I look a different direction I’ve seen paint on the walls from inside Junners or, if I’ve got my good glasses on, parts of the former Jailhouse nightclub. Take the same trip a few days later and the entire structure has been taken down. That entire corner of South Street is currently being stripped back to be rebuilt with more retail units, a UHI Moray campus and housing.
Right now, work is taking place that will change the shape of our town centre for generations to come. It’s exciting. You can tell from the number of people I pass who have picked up demolition watching as a spectator sport.
Can we replicate South Street project elsewhere in Elgin? It isn’t just in Elgin the South Street demolition project is turning heads though. During the last couple of months I’m pretty parochial when it comes to Elgin though because, frankly, it’s worth it. So let’s forget about how we could be setting examples for Dumfries, Falkirk and Dunbar and look at what we have on our own doorstep.
South Street is all about taking a .
