Tay Street

Tay Street
Tay Street, viewed from Bridgend in 2015
Map
Location within Perth
Part ofA989
Length0.47 mi (0.76 km)
LocationPerth, Perth and Kinross, Scotland
North endWest Bridge Street and Charlotte Street
Major
junctions
High Street
South Street
Canal Street
South endMarshall Place and Shore Road
Construction
Completionc. 1870

Tay Street is a street, part of the A989, in the Scottish city of Perth, Perth and Kinross. Planned in 1806 and completed around 1885, it is named for the River Tay, Scotland's longest river, on the western banks of which it sits. The street runs from the confluence of West Bridge Street and Charlotte Street in the north to a roundabout at Marshall Place and Shore Road in the south. Three of the city's four bridges that cross the Tay do so in this stretch (from north to south): Perth Bridge (also known as Smeaton's Bridge), Queen's Bridge and the single-track Tay Viaduct, carrying Perth and Dundee trains to and from Perth railway station, located 0.5 miles (0.80 km) to the north-west.[1]

Thomas Hay Marshall and his father-in-law Thomas Anderson (owner of the former Blackfriars lands), who were responsible for the construction of much of Georgian Perth, made the first steps in the creation of Tay Street in the late 18th century when they constructed Atholl Crescent and Atholl Street in the north and Marshall Place in the south.[2] The sections in between were gradually filled in over the course of the next century.

"A curving line of elegant buildings,"[3] Tay Street links the city's two main parks, the North Inch and the South Inch.

Water Vennel, one of Perth's many vennels, leads between Tay Street and Watergate.

The southern end of Tay Street was closed to motorised traffic in January 2024, to allow sewer work by Scottish Water on Shore Road. It is expected to reopen in 2025.

  1. ^ Bridges of Perth Archived 16 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Civic History of Perth from Medieval Times – Perth Civic Trust
  3. ^ Official Guide to Perth and Its Neighbourhood by the Tramway Car Routes – Perth Town Council (1907), p. 16