New Town

Welcome to the New Town of Edinburgh, a masterpiece of Georgian town planning and a physical manifestation of the Scottish Enlightenment. As we begin our exploration today, cast your mind back to the middle of the eighteenth…

Let us move up onto the pavement of Princes Street and turn our attention to the urban layout that defines this entire district. When the young architect James Craig won the competition to design the New Town, he was presented…

We now arrive at George Street, the grand, elevated central spine of James Craig's Monopoly board plan. Positioned perfectly along the ridge of the New Town, this majestic avenue was originally designed to be the principal…

Our route brings us now to St Andrew Square, the magnificent eastern anchor of the original New Town grid. As you enter this expansive space, the sheer scale of the Georgian ambition is immediately apparent. …

Standing squarely in the center of St Andrew Square is a feature that is impossible to ignore: the towering, monumental column reaching high into the Edinburgh sky. Atop this imposing structure stands the statue of Henry Dundas,…

Let us continue our journey to the western extremity of James Craig's original plan, where we arrive at the breathtaking expanse of Charlotte Square. Named in honor of King George the Third's wife, this space mirrors the exact…

As Edinburgh entered the nineteenth century, the insatiable appetite for grand, luxurious urban living only intensified. The newly wealthy elite of the first Industrial Revolution simply could not get enough of the clean, elegant…

As our detailed exploration of the New Town draws to a close, take a moment to reflect upon the staggering transformation that occurred upon these very streets. In a relatively short span of time, Edinburgh evolved from a densely…