North Bridge Arcade

For the longest time, I didn’t even know this hidden tunnel of shops existed. Then one day I went inside, and found a secret passage containing a range of interesting independent shops, from a fresh pasta store to a specialist art shop.
It’s not an extensive shopping experience — you could hardly spend all day in here — but I like it because there’s something kind of old-​fashioned and continental about the very idea of an arcade, with its cast iron gate and green tiled interior. i can imagine men of yore in bowler hats and Victorian ladies in crinolines ducking inside on rainy days for a spot of window shopping. That’s probably just a romantic fantasy of mine, but never mind.