Edinburgh's mysterious private park

Imagine a beautiful landscaped park, over one kilometer long, full of mature trees, paths, benches, and interesting features architectural features etc, and a small lake, in total around 25 acres.

 In Vancouver it could take up the land from West 41st Avenue along Granville all the way past West 52nd Avenue. Although not very wide at  just100 meters, its border to the west would be a few blocks, at Churchill Street.

Or, to put it another way, if located in Vancouver's downtown core, it would take up the land between Howe and Granville streets, stretching from Hastings to Davie Street.

Got that in your head? Not an insignificant amount of land.

Now put a big black rod iron fence around the entire thing and add a number of locked gates. Toss in a few signs to keep people out.

Make about 150 copies of the keys to those gates and hand them out to the lucky people who live in the apartments near by. Charge them $500 a year*  for the privilege of being the few people able to unlock the gates and enter the grounds.

Now add in a mysterious governing council of people who keep such a low profile they might as well be anonymous (and they are the ones who make the decisions about who gets the keys). All questions about the parkland are directed to the council's legal representative.

Welcome to Queens Street Garden in Edinburgh.  It is an breathtaking oasis in the city and it baffles the heck out of this Canadian. Searching the internet about the place yielded almost zero information.

Here is one of the few articles I found: Gardens Keeping their Secrets

From a cultural perspective I have no understanding of the existence of a exclusive, completely private green space smack in the middle of a capital city in a country that prides itself on its democracy.

Nevertheless most busy Edinburgh residents are content to quickly stride past the fence while I peer through straining to see past the bushes and huge gorgeous trees reaching over the almost completely deserted green space.

 Down the landscaped hill I could just make out two elderly ladies chatting while seated a bench.

Later that day as I was walking by, a well-tattooed, good looking man in sunglasses and a baseball cap with a pair of spaniels on leashes emerged through one of the gates and strode smartly away. He likely would have been a resident of one of the exclusive Georgian residences across the street, called "Heriot Row". In theory it is the residents of this historical complex that have access to the gardens (but who really knows for sure since the administration is so clandestine).

Part of Edinburgh's New Town, these gardens may have been set aside as a communal green space for the entire city but it was never made completely clear. It seems they were appropriated by the nearby residents and deemed private gardens by an act of parliament in the late 1700s.

The author Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island) lived on Heroit Row and used to play in the park as a boy. Obviously they are steeped in over 300 years of history.

There are other private squares and gardens in the city but Queens Street is the largest.

Mind you, its not like Edinburgh is devoid of public parks, there are many green spaces in this lovely city. Additionally, there is a wonderful botanical garden that has no admission fee (unlike Vancouver's Van Dusen gardens or UBC Botanical  Gardens which both charge admission).

Still, I just can't help wondering about Queens Street Gardens, and the lucky few to get to use it. Is there really a place in the center of a modern, democratic city for such an enormous, exclusive park? I mean, really...locked gates and only 150 keys?

Just another wonderfully quirky thing about the UK I guess.

(*This yearly figure is just a guess. The only information I could find is that the amount is three figures and in 2002 it was around $250)