New Town, Edinburgh - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The New Town is a central area of Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, the capital of Scotland. It is often considered to be a masterpiece of city planning, and is a UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

World Heritage Site

A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...

. Although still referred to as the New Town, it was built in stages between 1765 and around 1850, and retains much of the original neo-classical

Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...

and Georgian

Georgian architecture

Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...

period architecture.

Its most famous street is Princes Street

Princes Street

Princes Street is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, and its main shopping street. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, stretching around 1 mile from Lothian Road in the west to Leith Street in the east. The street is mostly closed to private...

, facing Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...

and the Old Town

Old Town, Edinburgh

The Old Town of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is the medieval part of the city. Together with the 18th-century New Town, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has preserved its medieval plan and many Reformation-era buildings....

across the geographical depression of the former Nor Loch

Nor Loch

The Nor Loch, also known as the Nor' Loch and the North Loch, was a loch formerly in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the area now occupied by Princes Street Gardens, which lies between the Royal Mile and Princes Street.- Geological formation :...

. The Old and New Towns were together designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.

Preparing the ground

Original plans to create a New Town in Edinburgh date back to a general concept considered by King James VII and II in the late 17th century.

The decision to construct a New Town was taken by the city fathers, after overcrowding inside the Old Town city walls reached breaking point and to prevent an exodus of wealthy citizens from the city to London. The Age of Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...

had arrived in Edinburgh, and the outdated city fabric did not suit the modern thinkers who lived there. Lord Provost

Lord Provost

A Lord Provost is the figurative and ceremonial head of one of the principal cities of Scotland. Four cities, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, have the right to appoint a Lord Provost instead of a provost...

George Drummond

George Drummond was accountant-general of excise in Scotland and a local politician, elected Lord Provost of Edinburgh a number of times between 1725 and 1764....

succeeded in extending the boundary of the Royal Burgh

Royal burgh

A royal burgh was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished in 1975, the term is still used in many of the former burghs....

to encompass the fields to the north of the Nor Loch, the heavily polluted body of water which occupied the valley immediately north of the city. A scheme to drain the Loch was put in to action, although the process was not fully completed until 1817. Crossing points were built to access the new land; the North Bridge

North Bridge, Edinburgh

North Bridge is a road bridge and street in Edinburgh linking the High Street with Princes Street, and the New Town with the Old. The current bridge was built between 1894–97. A previous North Bridge, built from 1763–72, stood until 1896....

in 1772, and the Earthen Mound, which began as a tip for material excavated during construction of the New Town. The Mound

The Mound

The Mound is an artificial hill in central Edinburgh, Scotland, which connects Edinburgh's New Town and Old Town. It was formed by dumping around 1,501,000 cartloads of earth excavated from the foundations of the New Town into the drained Nor Loch which forms today's Princes Street Gardens. The...

, as it is known today, reached its present proportions in the 1830s.

As the successive stages of the New Town were developed, the rich moved northwards from cramped tenements in narrow closes into grand Georgian

Georgian architecture

homes on wide roads. However, the poor remained in the Old Town.

The First New Town

A design competition was held in January 1766 to find a suitably modern layout for the new suburb. It was won by 26 year old James Craig

James Craig (architect)

James Craig was a Scottish architect. His brief career was concentrated almost entirely in Edinburgh, and he is remembered primarily for his layout of the first Edinburgh New Town.-Date of birth:...

, who proposed a simple axial grid, with a principal thoroughfare along the ridge linking two garden squares. Two other main roads were located downhill to the north and south, with two meuse (mews) providing stable lanes for the large homes. Completing the grid are three north-south streets.

Craig's original design had been for a centralising diagonal layout, echoing the design of the Union Flag

Union Flag

The Union Flag, also known as the Union Jack, is the flag of the United Kingdom. It retains an official or semi-official status in some Commonwealth Realms; for example, it is known as the Royal Union Flag in Canada. It is also used as an official flag in some of the smaller British overseas...

, reflecting a new era of civic Hanoverian British patriotism. Whilst simpler, the revised design reflected this spirit in the names of its streets and civic spaces.

Street names

The principal street was named George Street

George Street, Edinburgh

Situated to the north of Princes Street, George Street is a major street in the centre of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Laid out from 1767 as part of James Craig's plan for the New Town, George Street was named in honour of King George III.-Geography:...

, after the king at the time, George III

George III of the United Kingdom

George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...

. Queen Street was to be located to the north, named for his wife and St. Giles Street to the south, after the patron saint of the city. St. Andrew Square and St. George's Square were the names chosen to represent the union of Scotland and England. The idea was continued with the smaller Thistle Street (for Scotland's emblem) between George Street and Queen Street, and Rose Street (for England's emblem) between George Street and Princes Street.

King George rejected the name St. Giles Street, St Giles

Saint Giles

Saint Giles was a Greek Christian hermit saint from Athens, whose legend is centered in Provence and Septimania. The tomb in the abbey Giles was said to have founded, in St-Gilles-du-Gard, became a place of pilgrimage and a stop on the road that led from Arles to Santiago de Compostela, the...

also being the patron saint of lepers and having association with an edge-of-city slum area of London. It was renamed Princes Street

Princes Street

after his sons. The name of St. George's Square was changed to Charlotte Square

Charlotte Square

Charlotte Square is a city square in Edinburgh, Scotland, part of the New Town, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The square is located at the west end of George Street, intended to mirror St. Andrew Square in the east.-History:Initially named St...

, after the Queen

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the Queen consort of the United Kingdom as the wife of King George III...

, to avoid confusion with George Square on the South Side of the Old Town. The westernmost blocks of Thistle Street were renamed to Hill Street and Young Street, making Thistle Street half the length of Rose Street. The three streets completing the grid, Castle, Frederick and Hanover Streets, are named for the views of the castle, the father of King George

Frederick, Prince of Wales

Frederick, Prince of Wales was a member of the House of Hanover and therefore of the Hanoverian and later British Royal Family, the eldest son of George II and father of George III, as well as the great-grandfather of Queen Victoria...

and the royal family name respectively.

Development

Craig's proposals hit further problems when development began. Initially the exposed new site was unpopular, leading to a £20 premium being offered to the first builder on site. Doubts were overcome soon enough, and construction started in the east with St. Andrew Square.

Craig had proposed that George Street be terminated by two large churches, situated within each square. Sir Lawrence Dundas, the landowner, decided to build his own home here, and commissioned a design from Sir William Chambers

William Chambers (architect)

Sir William Chambers was a Scottish architect, born in Gothenburg, Sweden, where his father was a merchant. Between 1740 and 1749 he was employed by the Swedish East India Company making several voyages to China where he studied Chinese architecture and decoration.Returning to Europe, he studied...

. The resulting Palladian

Palladian architecture

Palladian architecture is a European style of architecture derived from the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio . The term "Palladian" normally refers to buildings in a style inspired by Palladio's own work; that which is recognised as Palladian architecture today is an evolution of...

mansion, completed in 1774, is now the headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland

Royal Bank of Scotland

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group is a British banking and insurance holding company in which the UK Government holds an 84% stake. This stake is held and managed through UK Financial Investments Limited, whose voting rights are limited to 75% in order for the bank to retain its listing on the...

. St. Andrew's Church had to be built on a site on George Street. The lack of a visual termination at the end of this street was remedied in 1823 with William Burn

William Burn

William Burn was a Scottish architect, pioneer of the Scottish Baronial style.He was born in Edinburgh, the son of architect Robert Burn, and educated at the Royal High School. After training with the architect of the British Museum, Sir Robert Smirke, he returned to Edinburgh in 1812...

's monument to Henry Dundas

Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville

Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville PC and Baron Dunira was a Scottish lawyer and politician. He was the first Secretary of State for War and the last person to be impeached in the United Kingdom....

.

The first New Town was completed in 1800, with the construction of Charlotte Square. This was built to a design by Robert Adam

Robert Adam

Robert Adam was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him...

, and was the only architecturally unified section of the New Town. Adam also produced a design for St. George's Church, although his design was superseded by that of Robert Reid

Robert Reid (architect)

Robert Reid was the King's architect and surveyor for Scotland from 1827 to 1839. He is responsible for a number of public works particularly the façade of Parliament Square in Edinburgh, which houses the Court of Session....

. The building, now known as West Register House, now houses part of the National Archives of Scotland

National Archives of Scotland

Based in Edinburgh, the National Archives of Scotland are the national archives of Scotland. The NAS claims to have one of the most varied collection of archives in Europe...

. The North side of Charlotte Square features Bute House

Bute House

Bute House is the official residence of the First Minister of Scotland, who is the head of the Scottish Government, the country's devolved government established in 1999...

—formerly the official residence of the Secretary of State for Scotland

Secretary of State for Scotland

The Secretary of State for Scotland is the principal minister of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Scotland. He heads the Scotland Office , a government department based in London and Edinburgh. The post was created soon after the Union of the Crowns, but was...

. Since the introduction of devolution

Devolution

Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level. Devolution can be mainly financial, e.g. giving areas a budget which was formerly administered by central government...

in Scotland, Bute House

Bute House

Bute House is the official residence of the First Minister of Scotland, who is the head of the Scottish Government, the country's devolved government established in 1999...

is the official residence of the First Minister of Scotland

First Minister of Scotland

The First Minister of Scotland is the political leader of Scotland and head of the Scottish Government. The First Minister chairs the Scottish Cabinet and is primarily responsible for the formulation, development and presentation of Scottish Government policy...

Redevelopment

The New Town was envisaged as a purely residential suburb. In the Second New Town, townhouses generally occupied the east-west streets, with blocks of flats (called tenements in Scotland) along the north-south streets. Shops were originally generally restricted to the lower floors of the wider north-south streets. The larger houses had service mews running behind and parallel to their terraces. In the First New Town this pattern was less rigid, and it had few planned commercial ground floors.

It did not take long for the commercial potential of the site to be realised. Shops were soon opened on Princes Street, and during the 19th century the majority of the townhouses on that street were replaced with larger commercial buildings. Occasional piecemeal redevelopment continues to this day, though most of Queen Street and Thistle Street, and large sections of George Street, Hanover, Frederick and Castle Streets, are still lined with their original late 18th century buildings. Very large sections of the Second New Town, built from the early 19th century are also still exactly as built.

Later additions

After 1800, the success of the first New Town led to grander schemes. Four further extensions to the New Town have been described. The 'Northern New Town' aimed to extend Edinburgh from the North of Queen Street Gardens all the way to the Water of Leith

Water of Leith

The Water of Leith is the main river flowing through Edinburgh, Scotland, to the port of Leith where it flows into the sea via the Firth of Forth.It is long and rises in the Colzium Springs at Millstone Rig of the Pentland Hills...

, with extensions to the East and West. These developments took place mostly between 1800-1830. Initial designs followed the original grid orientation of Craig’s First New Town, with entire streets being built as one construction. Building continued on an extended Hanover Street, here named Dundas Street, almost 1 km to the Water of Leith at Canonmills. Broad streets and grand squares were laid out to either side. The Picardy Place extension (including Broughton Street, Union Street and East London Street) was mostly finished by 1809. To the West of the original New Town, Shandwick Place, an extension of Princes Street, was started in 1805. Development of Melville Street and the area North of Shandwick Place followed in 1825. The Gayfield Estate (Gayfield Square) extension was designed in 1807 and from around 1813 the New Town gradually replaced and developed the older village of Stockbridge

Stockbridge, Edinburgh

Stockbridge is an area of Edinburgh, located towards the north of the city, bounded by the New Town and by Comely Bank. The name is Scots stock brig from Anglic stocc brycg, meaning a timber bridge. Originally a small outlying village, it was incorporated into the City of Edinburgh in the 19th...

. The Painter Henry Raeburn

Henry Raeburn

Sir Henry Raeburn was a Scottish portrait painter, the first significant Scottish portraitist since the Act of Union 1707 to remain based in Scotland.-Biography:...

bought the Deanhough estate in the Northwest of the New Town and started development in 1813 with Anne Street named after his wife. In 1822 the Earl of Moray

Earl of Moray

The title Earl of Moray has been created several times in the Peerage of Scotland.Prior to the formal establishment of the peerage, Earl of Moray, numerous individuals ruled the kingdom of Moray or Mormaer of Moray until 1130 when the kingdom was destroyed by David I of Scotland.-History of the...

, had plans drawn up to develop his estates (including Moray Place) also in the Northwest of the New Town sloping down to the Water of Leith

Water of Leith

.

In order to extend the New Town eastwards, the Lord Provost, Sir John Marjoribanks, succeeded in getting the elegant Regent Bridge

Regent Bridge

Regent Bridge is a road bridge in Edinburgh where the A1 road enters the New Town from the east and passes over a hollow near Calton Hill. The bridge was built in the 19th century, in the neoclassical style as the medieval city was modernised and expanded to the north and east.- History :The...

built. It was completed in 1819. The bridge spanned a deep ravine with narrow inconvenient streets and made access to Calton Hill much easier and agreeable from Princes Street. Edinburgh Town Council organised a competition for plans to develop the Eastern New Town but the result was inconclusive. Eventually designs by the Architect William Henry Playfair

William Henry Playfair

William Henry Playfair FRSE was one of the greatest Scottish architects of the 19th century, designer of many of Edinburgh's neo-classical landmarks in the New Town....

were used to develop Calton Hill and Edinburgh’s Eastern New Town from 1820 onwards. Playfair’s designs were intended to create a New Town even more magnificent than Craig's. Regent Terrace

Regent Terrace

Regent Terrace is a residential street of 34 classical 3-bay townhouses built on the tail of Calton Hill in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. Regent Terrace is within the Edinburgh New and Old Town UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 1995.- Houses :...

, Calton Terrace and Royal Terrace were built but the developments to the North of London Road were never fully completed. On the South side of Calton hill various monuments were erected as well as the Royal High School

New Parliament House, Edinburgh

The Old Royal High School is the name commonly given to a historic building on Calton Hill in Edinburgh which formerly housed the school of that name. The metonym Regent Road, from the street address, is used within the school community to distinguish it from the school's other past sites...

in Greek revival style.

A few modest developments in Canonmills

Canonmills

Canonmills is a suburb of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is south-east of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Inverleith.It lies in low-lying ground north of Edinburgh's New Town on ground that was uneconomic to connect to the higher New Town street levels....

were started in the 1820s but none were completed at that time. For several decades the operations of the tannery at Silvermills

Silvermills

Silvermills once an ancient village, has been part of the Edinburgh New Town since 1809.As the name suggests, the village was centred around a mill for Silver...

inhibited development in the immediate vicinity. From the 1830s onward, development slowed but following the completion in 1831 of Thomas Telford

Thomas Telford

Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE was a Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason, and a noted road, bridge and canal builder.-Early career:...

’s Dean Bridge, the Dean Estate including the village of Dean had some developments built. These included the Dean Orphanage (now the Dean Gallery

Dean Gallery

The Dean Gallery is an art gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is part of the National Galleries of Scotland. It was opened in 1999, opposite the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, which is its sister gallery. As the result of a rebranding exercise in 2011, the buildings have now been...

), Daniel Stewart's College, streets to the Northeast of Queensferry Street (in the 1850s), Buckingham Terrace (in 1860) and Learmonth Terrace (in 1873). Plans to develop the Moray Estate were drawn up in 1822 and most sites were sold by 1836, although some buildings were not built until 1855.

In the 19th century Edinburgh's second railway, the Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway

Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway

The Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway, which later became the Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway, was a railway in Edinburgh. It carried passengers and freight between the city centre and the northern ports. It was Edinburgh's second railway, after the Duke of Buccleuch's Edinburgh and...

, built a tunnel under the New Town to link Scotland Street with Canal Street (later absorbed into Waverley Station

Edinburgh Waverley railway station

Edinburgh Waverley railway station is the main railway station in the Scottish capital Edinburgh. Covering an area of over 25 acres in the centre of the city, it is the second-largest main line railway station in the United Kingdom in terms of area, the largest being...

). After its closure, the tunnel was used to grow mushrooms, and during World War 2 as an air raid shelter.

Principal Losses

Given the great continuity of the built form in the New Town it is quicker to list what little has gone, rather than muse on the numerous streets which are unchanged.

The most "important" loss was probably Bellevue House by Robert Adam

Robert Adam

Robert Adam was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him...

which was built in what is now the centre of Drummond Place in 1775. This was demolished in the 1840s.

Lost streets include James Square, demolished in the 1960s to make way for the St James Shopping Centre and offices for the Scottish Office

Scottish Office

The Scottish Office was a department of the United Kingdom Government from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland...

. This was demolished largely on the pretext of being slums, but this was largely defined on a non-structural basis.

Also demolished as "slums" was Jamaica Street at the west end of the Second New Town.

Culture

The New Town is home to the National Gallery of Scotland

National Gallery of Scotland

The National Gallery of Scotland, in Edinburgh, is the national art gallery of Scotland. An elaborate neoclassical edifice, it stands on The Mound, between the two sections of Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens...

and the Royal Scottish Academy

Royal Scottish Academy

The Royal Scottish Academy is a Scottish organisation that promotes contemporary Scottish art. Founded in 1826, as the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts, the RSA maintains a unique position in Scotland as an independently funded institution led by eminent artists and...

, located on The Mound. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Scottish National Portrait Gallery

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery on Queen Street, Edinburgh, Scotland. It holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. In addition it also holds the Scottish National Photography Collection...

is on Queen Street. Other notable buildings include the Assembly Rooms on George Street, the Balmoral Hotel

Balmoral Hotel

The Balmoral is a luxury five-star hotel and landmark in Edinburgh, Scotland, known as the North British Hotel until the late 1980s. It is located in the heart of the city at the east end of Princes Street, the main shopping street beneath the Edinburgh Castle rock, and the southern edge of the New...

(formerly called the North British Hotel, after a railway company) with its landmark clock tower above Waverley Station

Edinburgh Waverley railway station

, and the Scott Monument

Scott Monument

The Scott Monument is a Victorian Gothic monument to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott . It stands in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh, opposite the Jenners department store on Princes Street and near to Edinburgh Waverley Railway Station.The tower is high, and has a series of viewing decks...

.

The Cockburn Association

Cockburn Association

The Cockburn Association is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is one of the world's oldest architectural conservation and urban planning monitoring organisations....

(Edinburgh Civic Trust) is prominent in campaigning to preserve the architectural integrity of the New Town.

Shopping

The New Town contains Edinburgh's main shopping streets. Princes Street

Princes Street

is home to many chain shops, as well as Jenners department store

Jenners

Jenners Department Store, now known simply as Jenners, is a department store located in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was the oldest independent department store in Scotland until its acquisition by House of Fraser in 2005.- History :...

, an Edinburgh institution. George Street

George Street, Edinburgh

, once the financial centre, now has numerous modern bars, many occupying former banking halls, while the new Multrees Walk on St. Andrew's Square is home to Harvey Nichols

Harvey Nichols

Harvey Nichols, founded in 1813, is an upmarket department store chain. Its original store is in London. Founded in 1813 as a linen shop, it sells many international brands of clothing for women and men, fashion accessories, beauty products, wine and food...

and other designer shops. The St. James Centre

St. James Centre

The St. James Centre is a shopping centre located in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was designed by Ian Burke & Martin in 1964.Due to its brutalist architecture, it is one of Edinburgh's most unloved buildings, but remains a popular and busy shopping location....

, at the east end of the New Town, is an indoor mall completed in 1970. Often considered an unwelcome addition to New Town architecture, it includes a large branch of John Lewis

John Lewis Partnership

The John Lewis Partnership is an employee-owned UK partnership which operates John Lewis department stores, Waitrose supermarkets and a number of other services...

. Also, by the Waverley Railway Station

Edinburgh Waverley railway station

lies the Princes' Street Mall, which contains many high street stores.

External links

UNESCO World Heritage Site Inscription
http://www.aboutscotland.com/edin/newtown.html

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Preparing the ground

The First New Town

Street names

Development

Redevelopment

Later additions

Principal Losses

Culture

Shopping

Further reading

External links