Princes Street, Edinburgh 1973

In the 1970s, Princes Street remained the beating heart of Edinburgh’s transport system. As the city’s main shopping thoroughfare, it was a constant hive of activity—where rows of buses dominated the road and crowds of pedestrians filled the pavements from morning until night.

By this time, the street was lined with familiar names like Jenners, Woolworths, Binns, and C&A, and it was served by an equally familiar fleet of Lothian Region Transport buses. Maroon and white double-deckers—many of them ageing Leyland Titans and newer Atlanteans—moved in steady procession along the street, ferrying passengers to and from every corner of the city.

Princes Street was still two-way in the early part of the decade, with buses pulling in at frequent stops along both sides. At peak times, the road was often so full of buses that queues of them would idle along the entire length of the street, waiting their turn to move forward. Conductors still roamed the upper decks, issuing tickets and chatting with regulars, and the distinct rumble of diesel engines echoed between the buildings.

Though traffic congestion and changing retail habits would eventually lead to pedestrianisation schemes and one-way systems, the 1970s captured a final golden age of traditional urban bus travel. For many, the sight of maroon double-deckers passing under the gaze of the Scott Monument and beside the Gardens was as much a part of Princes Street as the shops themselves.