TOLLCROSS, a name which evidently derives from a toll-bar that in olden times levied a charge on road users, is one of the liveliest road junctions in Edinburgh outwith the immediate city centre.

Five roads radiate from the familiar landmark of the Tollcross public clock, and the area can claim a reputation as Edinburgh's theatreland. There is the Kings Theatre in Leven Street, a handsome Edwardian building with a beautifully conserved interior unsurpassed by any other theatre in the country, and where a varied programme is presented throughout the year. The Royal Lyceum Theatre, in Grindlay Street, also owned by the City of Edinburgh, presents a year-round programme under the aegis of the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company. The Usher Hall, in Lothian Road, is Edinburgh's premier concert hall, seating 2,700, and its platform is graced by the world's finest orchestras, solo musicians and singers, particularly during the Edinburgh International Festival.

The Royal Lyceum Theatre

The most recent addition to this impressive roster of the performing arts is the Traverse Theatre, which has made a spectacular leap from a tiny auditorium in the Grassmarket to a brand new, purpose built theatre in Cambridge Street, adjacent to the Usher Hall. The theatre was created as part of the Saltire Court office project in Castle Terrace.

Much new architecture has been sprouting in the neighbourhood. Directly across the street from the Usher Hall is Festival Square, with its ornamental display of water fountains. The sculpture in the square, entitled Woman and Child, commemorates all those who suffered in South Africa during the years of apartheid.

Beyond Festival Square and the Sheraton Hotel is rising the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, due to be completed in 1995. This long-needed facility will give renewed impetus to conference business in Edinburgh, a city which has always been an attractive venue to conference organisers.

A few yards south of Festival Square, at no. 88 Lothian Road, is Filmhouse, the headquarters of the annual Edinburgh International Film Festival. Within Filmhouse are the offices of Edinburgh Film Guild, which is the world's oldest film society. A wall plaque beside Filmhouse records that the adjacent building was the birthplace and family home of the actor and director Alastair Sim.

Meadows in Springtime

The Meadows and Bruntsfield Links, lying on either side of Melville Drive, are the biggest recreational space in this part of the city. The Meadows, a large stretch of wooded parkland criss-crossed with paths, is used by large numbers for football, cricket, hockey, tennis, bowls and jogging. At one time it was a large sheet of water called the South Loch or Burgh Loch, and centuries ago it provided the town of Edinburgh to the north with its main water supply. Local breweries benefited from the water, too. Drainage of the loch, however, was completed by about 1740 and the Meadows were laid out more or less in the form seen today.

Marchmont Architecture

The Jawbone Arch in Melville Drive, near to its junction with Marchmont Road, originally came from Shetland, a whaling area at that time, in order to be exhibited at an International Exhibition held on the Meadows in 1886. The tall ornamental pillars at each end of Melville Drive were erected to celebrate the same occasion.

Bruntsfield Links, which extends to about 35 acres, is the last remnant of the historic Burgh Muir, which once stretched southwards from here as far as Blackford Hill and Morningside. A mixture of grazing land, gorse and woodland, the Burgh Muir was given to the city by James IV under a charter of 1508. On at least six occasions the Burgh Muir was the gathering point of a Scottish army: the most fateful of these occasions was in August 1513, when the army under James IV set off for the disastrous Battle of Flodden.

Golf Tavern

The links also has long associations with the game of golf: indeed, Bruntsfield Links has a claim to be one of the cradles of the game in Scotland. Though in time a lack of space led to the links being supplanted in popularity by Musselburgh and by the Braid Hills (as better roads and transport enabled golfers to travel further afield), there seems no doubt that golf was played on the Burgh Muir as early as anywhere else in Scotland. The Golf Tavern, which is situated only a few yards from the first tee, claims to have been established in 1456.