St. Andrew Square commemorates St. Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, with a park which has recently undergone a major reconstruction, and now contains a water feature beneath Melville Monument and a coffee shop after years of being a sterile zone of greenspace inaccessible to the general public.

The water feature in the beautifully redeveloped St Andrew Square Garden in Edinburgh

[image credit: Spanner Dan]

This means that more and more people are able to enjoy what has been, until recently, an off-limits area in the city centre.

Soaking up the sun in Edinburgh's St. Andrew Square Garden.

[image credit: LodewijkB]

Restaurants, Shops And More

A number of businesses have their homes or major branches in St. Andrew Square, including banks, coffee and sandwich shops, and a small Sainsbury’s where city-dwellers or those on their lunch break can pick up necessities. Around half of the buses that travel down Princes Street stop in St. Andrew Square, with the other half heading down Leith Street or across the Bridges.

A view onto St. Andrew Square as seen from Scott Monument with Leith and the Firth of Forth in the background.

[image credit: thomesy]

St. Andrew Square itself is notable for its fine cocktail bars and a number of business offices on its south side, as well as an easy way to make the passage from the nearby St. James shopping center through to Harvey Nicks and George Street. It is within a stone’s throw of the Stand Comedy Club, and during the summer months the park and new coffee shop allow residents and visitors a safe and enticing place to rest their feet after a day’s shopping on Princes and George Street before they carry on into the evening with the clubs and bars on Queen Street.

St. Andrew Square is one of those rare gems in Scotland’s capital city, a square that has held its place in history while moving with the times and showing its modern side as well.