The Scotsman

It is not a place to linger late, once the last shoppers have filed out from the St James Centre - where Enlightenment town planning collides rudely with 20th-century consumerism. The eastern extremity of Edinburgh's New Town peters out with two dislocated 18th-century tenements. One of them, in a flourish of supreme irony, bears a blue plaque commemorating James Craig, "planner of Edinburgh's first new Town and architect of this building". The plaque faces across what was once St James Square to the grey aggregate cliffs and conning towers of the St James complex, probably Edinburgh's most unpopular building. The shopping centre, feeling the chilly breezes of retail competition from Multrees Walk nearby, has now been earmarked for a facelift and "rebranding" exercise - though its cosmetic nature will hardly satisfy those who regard the complex as a blot on the townscape.