New Town, Edinburgh

New Town is a beautiful and important part of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It was built between 1767 and around 1850 and still has many of its original buildings with special neo-classical and Georgian styles. One of its most famous streets is Princes Street, which looks out over Edinburgh Castle and the Old Town across a valley that used to hold a lake called the Nor Loch.

The gardens in New Town were given a special heritage designation in 2001, meaning they are very important to history and culture. Together with the Old Town and the West End, New Town became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995, showing that it is one of the most important historic areas in the world.

Proposal and planning

The idea of building a New Town was first suggested in the late 1600s by the Duke of Albany and York, who later became King James VII and II. He encouraged the city to expand north and build a bridge. However, he left the city and became king in 1685 before much could happen.

Later, city leaders decided to build the New Town because the Old Town was too crowded, and wealthy people were moving away. During the Age of Enlightenment, the old city didn’t suit the needs of professionals and merchants. Lord Provost George Drummond helped extend the city’s boundary to include land north of the Nor Loch, a polluted lake. Plans were made to drain the Loch, which took until 1817 to finish. New bridges were built, like the North Bridge in 1772.

As the New Town grew, wealthier people moved from the Old Town’s narrow streets into grand new Georgian houses with wide roads. The working classes stayed in the Old Town.

The First New Town

In January 1766, a contest was held to design a modern layout for a new part of the city. A young man named James Craig won. He created a simple grid of streets that followed the shape of the land. His plan included a main road along a ridge with two big open spaces, or squares, and several smaller streets.

The main street was named George Street after the king, George III. Other streets were named after important people and symbols. For example, St Andrew Square and St. George's Square were meant to show the union of Scotland and England. But the king did not like one of the names, so it was changed to Princes Street after his son.

Building the new area was hard at first because people did not like the empty land. The first builder, John Young, built a small group of houses called Thistle Court in 1767. As more people saw the area, building continued. One big house, Dundas House, was built instead of a church that was planned. Today, it is used by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

By 1820, most of the new area was finished, with Charlotte Square as its highlight. It was designed by Robert Adam and looks the same today. Some smaller parts were built much later, and some areas were never developed.

The New Town was mostly for homes, but shops soon appeared on Princes Street. Over time, many houses there became big stores. Today, parts of the New Town still have their original buildings from the late 1700s.

Northern, or Second, New Town and extensions

After 1800, the success of the first New Town led to bigger building plans. The 'Northern New Town,' now called the Second New Town, aimed to expand Edinburgh from north of Queen Street Gardens toward the Water of Leith. Building happened mostly between 1800 and 1830. Designs by William Sibbald followed the original layout, with whole streets built at once. Construction continued on Hanover Street, called Dundas Street, and Pitt Street (later also called Dundas Street), stretching almost 1 km north to the Water of Leith at Canonmills, where Bellevue Crescent marked the northern end. Streets were arranged with Great King Street as the main road, ending at Drummond Place to the east and Royal Circus to the west.

Much of the Second New Town built in the early 1800s still looks the same today. Big houses lined the east-west streets, while blocks of flats, called tenements in Scotland, stood on the north-south streets. Shops were usually only on the lower floors of the wider north-south streets. Larger houses had small buildings behind them for servants. The Picardy Place area, including Broughton Street and Union Street, was mostly done by 1809. To the west, Shandwick Place, an extension of Princes Street, began in 1805. Melville Street and areas north of Shandwick Place were developed in 1825. The Gayfield Estate was planned in 1807 and built from around 1813, replacing the old village of Stockbridge. Painter Henry Raeburn began building on the Deanhough estate in 1813, naming Ann Street after his wife. In 1822, the Earl of Moray planned to develop his Drumsheugh estate between Charlotte Square and the Water of Leith, which became popular with wealthy people. Most of this area was finished by 1835, with many corner blocks added by the 1850s. It is now called the Moray Estate and remains one of the city's most expensive areas. The expansion continued into the estate of Lord Alva, forming the West End Village.

Eastern, or Third, New Town

To extend the New Town eastward, the Lord Provost, Sir John Marjoribanks, helped build the beautiful Regent Bridge. It was finished in 1819. The bridge crossed a deep valley with narrow streets, making it much easier and more pleasant to travel from Princes Street to Calton Hill.

Before the bridge was built, the Edinburgh Town Council began planning the Eastern New Town. This area would stretch from the slopes of Calton Hill up toward Leith, between Leith Walk and Easter Road. In 1811, the Lord Provost made an agreement with landowners, and some early surveys were done. There was a contest for design plans on January 1, 1813, but the results were unclear. Many famous architects gave their opinions.

The planners chose William Henry Playfair, a student of one of the architects, to design the area. He was hired in February 1818 and created a plan in April 1819, following many of the earlier suggestions. Playfair wanted to build a New Town even grander than before.

Regent Terrace, Carlton Terrace, and Royal Terrace on Calton Hill were built, along with Hillside Crescent and some nearby streets. However, plans to build further north toward Leith were never finished. On the south side of Calton Hill, several monuments were put up, along with the Royal High School, designed in a Greek revival style by Thomas Hamilton.

West End

For the history and development of the West End of New Town see: West End, Edinburgh.

Other additions

Some small buildings began to appear in Canonmills in the 1820s, but they were not finished at that time. For many years, a tannery at Silvermills stopped growth nearby. Starting in the 1830s, building slowed, but after Thomas Telford finished the Dean Bridge in 1831, some new structures were added to the Dean Estate. These included the Dean Orphanage, which is now the Dean Gallery, Daniel Stewart's College, and several streets built later, such as Buckingham Terrace and Learmonth Terrace.

In the 1800s, Edinburgh built a second railway with a tunnel under the New Town to connect Scotland Street to Canal Street, which later became part of Waverley Station. After the railway closed, the tunnel was used to grow mushrooms and, during World War 2, it served as a safe place for people during air raids.

Principal losses

In the 1960s, there was a plan to build a walkway along Princes Street. This plan would have removed many buildings, but it was not liked by many people. Before the plan was stopped in 1982, seven buildings were taken down. One of these was the old Boots building at 102 Princes Street, which had statues of famous people like William Wallace, Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, and Robert the Bruce. Other buildings that were removed included the North British & Mercantile Insurance Company building and the New Club, designed by William Burn.

Some streets near St James Square were also removed in the 1960s to make space for a shopping center and offices for the Scottish Office. Many homes in this area were taken down because they were considered old and not well kept. Most of Jamaica Street at the west end of the New Town was also removed for the same reason.

Bellevue House, built by Robert Adam in 1775, was taken down in the 1840s to make way for a railway tunnel.

Culture

The New Town has many important buildings. You can find the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Academy Building close together on The Mound. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is on Queen Street. Other famous spots include the Assembly Rooms on George Street, the Balmoral Hotel with its big clock tower above Waverley Station, and the Scott Monument.

The Cockburn Association works hard to protect the beautiful old buildings in the New Town.

Shopping

The New Town has Edinburgh’s main shopping streets. Princes Street features many chain shops, including the famous Jenners department store. George Street, once the financial centre, now has many modern bars in old banking halls. Multrees Walk on St. Andrew Square is home to Harvey Nichols and other designer shops.

The St. James Centre, an indoor mall finished in 1970 at the east end of the New Town, was often seen as not matching the area’s style. It closed in 2016 and was torn down, then reopened in 2021 as the St James Quarter. Near Waverley Station, Waverley Market has many popular stores like Game, Costa, McDonald's, Sainsbury's, KFC, Subway, Superdry, and Greggs.

Notable residents

Many famous people lived in New Town, Edinburgh. Some of them are J M Barrie, Alexander Graham Bell, Mary Brunton, Thomas De Quincey, Arthur Conan Doyle, David Hume, Elsie Inglis, Ludovic Kennedy, Joseph Lister, James Clerk Maxwell, Peter McLagan, Ann Katharine Mitchell, Walter Scott, Catherine Sinclair, Moira Shearer, Mary Somerville, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Marie Stopes.