The Bingham Mermaid
Designed by New York artist Pedro Da Silva and situated between Bingham and Niddrie, the mermaid was a 60-foot long and 20-foot high concrete sculpture with a dazzling mosaic tail and floor.
It was both visually stunning and highly strategic; commissioned by the Craigmillar Festival Society as a protest to a proposed motorway that was planned to run right through the core of Greater Craigmillar.
Watch archival footage of the creation of the Mermaid, 1979
The community’s creativity and defiance was effective and the motorway was never built.
However, the sculpture was eventually demolished in 1987.
