NEW BEGINNINGS
formed New Town Edinburgh’s perfectly
By the eighteenth century Edinburgh’s Old Town had been inhabited for over 1,000 years. From as early as the Bronze Age, Castle Rock had been favoured for its high position over the Burgh Muir and surrounding lochs, and across the Firth of Forth to Fife. It is estimated that by the mid-1700s the Old Town housed 1,750 people per hectare in tenements, some 15 storeys high. Bad sanitation and hygiene gained our capital the nickname Auld Reekie and after a series of fires and building collapses, a competition to expand Edinburgh northwards was launched in April 1766.
A little known 26-year-old architect called James Craig won the competition with his grand neoclassical design which took inspiration from the wide boulevards and green squares of London and Paris. At this time Scotland was enjoying a period of enlightenment.
A visitor to Edinburgh in the 1750’s said he could ‘in but a few minutes, take 50 men of genius and learning by the hand’. It was widely agreed that for Scotland to prosper, something had to be done about the condition of its capital city.
James Craig’s simple grid design, which celebrated both the union between Scotland and England and King George III’s reign, stretched from St Andrew Square to Charlotte Square (originally to be called ‘St George’s Square’), and from Princes Street to Queen Street, in what is now known as Edinburgh’s first New Town. This approach not only appealed to unionists, but the neoclassical style reflected the zeitgeist of Edinburgh and with the last Jacobite rebellion as little as 20 years prior, by adopting Hanoverian street names Craig was forecasting a secure and stable social future for Scotland’s capital. Craig’s plan of the New Town set the standard for Edinburgh, laying down a blank canvas on which Scotland’s great eighteenth century architects, such as Robert Adam and William Playfair, could paint.
‘Craig was forecasting a secure and stable social future for Scotland’s capital’
Top: The north side of Charlotte Square, including Bute House, the residence of the First Minister of Scotland, was designed by Robert Adam in 1791. Bottom left: James Craig’s plan for the New Town, dedicated to King George III, shows the three principal streets, Princes, George and Queen, with Charlotte and St Andrew squares at either end. Left: After the success of Craig’s initial plan the New Town was greatly expanded to the north and east between 1800 and 1850. Above: A late eighteenth century engraving showing the view of the New Town from Ramsay Gardens, including the Royal Scottish Academy at the foot of The Mound.