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The New Town is a central area of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is often considered to be a masterpiece of city planning, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was built in stages between 1765 and around 1850, and retains much of the original neo-classical and Georgian period architecture. Its most famous street is Princes Street, facing Edinburgh Castle and the Old Town across the geographical depression of the former Nor Loch. The Old and New Towns were together designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.
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 The Age of Enlightenment had arrived in Edinburgh, and the outdated city fabric did not suit the modern thinkers who lived there. Lord Provost George Drummond succeeded in extending the boundary of the Royal Burgh 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 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, who, following the natural contours of the land, 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 minor streets between. Several mews off the minor streets provided stable lanes for the large homes. Completing the grid are three north-south cross streets.
The principal street was named George Street, after the king at the time, George III. Queen Street was to be located to the north, named after his wife, and St. Giles Street to the south, after the city’s patron saint. St. Andrew’s 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 national emblem) between George Street and Queen Street, and Rose Street (for England’s emblem) between George Street and Princes Street.
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.
The New Town is home to the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Academy, located on The Mound. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is on Queen Street. Other notable buildings include the Assembly Rooms on George Street, the Balmoral Hotel (formerly called the North British Hotel, after a railway company) with its landmark clock tower above Waverley Station, and the Scott Monument. The Cockburn Association (Edinburgh Civic Trust) is prominent in campaigning to preserve the architectural integrity of the New Town.
The New Town contains Edinburgh’s main shopping streets. Princes Street is home to many chain shops, as well as Jenners department store, an Edinburgh institution. George Street, 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 and other designer shops. The St. James Centre, 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. Also, by the Waverley Railway Station lies the Princes Mall, which contains many high street stores.
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