text: After moving to Leith I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that it is not an impoverished drugridden Trainspottingesque hellhole as many snooty South Edinburgh types like to imply As an area it is actually got a lot going for it However the New Kirkgate shopping centre at the foot of Leith Walk does seem to corroborate all those negative stereotypesnnThis depressing precinct is given over exclusively to cutprice retailers from Lidl and Farmfoods to Pound Stretcher and the dismal Shoe Zone There are always chainsmoking unemployed men sitting on the pigeondaubed benches beside the statue of Queen Victoria bored teenagers in hoodies idling outside the shops and single mothers in the supermarket bawling at their unruly offspring In fact the whole setup seems to encapsulate the desolate image of broken Britain so often invoked by politicians It serves as a reminder that in many ways the supposed regeneration of Leith is only skin deepnnA lot of what makes this shopping centre so dispiriting however is not just the fact that everything here is cheap and low quality after all it is actually very useful to have somewhere nearby where you can get eight tins of sweetcorn for a pound or a pair of boots for under a tenner It is more that it is such an ugly and soulless development the misguided project of s city planners who ripped out the historic buildings and cobbled marketplace of the original Kirkgate to replace it with this concrete monstrosity The Newkirkgate Shopping Centre may seem like an embodiment of social deprivation but it is worth bearing in mind that it did not have to be this way