The New Town

The streets of the New Town are delightful to wander around. Elegant, imposing and harmonious, this rectangular grid of broad straight streets is the largest expanse of 18th- and early 19th century architecture in Europe, comparable in Britain only with Bath, Cheltenham and York. This speculative property development for wealthy citizens was primarily intended as residential, but today many of the streets of the New Town are dominated by shops, banks and grand business headquarters. It is still very much the preserve of the well-heeled, although more and more trendy shops, restaurants and bars are opening up. An area of the city that used to be renowned for its snobbery and select social cliques is gradually becoming more accessible.

Growth of a Vision

Different from the slow organic growth of the Old Town in every respect, the New Town was first formally proposed in the 1750s, after one of the stacked-up 'lands' on the High Street collapsed with considerable loss of life. A competition for its design was held, which was won by the 23-year-old architect James Craig.

The development of the proposal proceeded in three main stages, still clearly discernible today. First came the rectangular plan: George Street was constructed along the top of the natural ridge, with the 'Lang Gait' (now called Princes Street) running parallel below it to the south, and Queen Street parallel to the north. These three perfectly straight streets end in St Andrew Square in the east, and Charlotte Square in the west, and were named in honour of George III and his family. Almost at once Edinburgh saw a 'great flitting' of the gentry from their crumbling piles on the hill into these stately new homes, leaving the Old Town to sink into squalor.

By the 1820s the second New Town had gone up on similar lines, further down the hill to the north, with Drummond Place and Royal Circus linked by Great King Street. This development was less austere and altogether more showy, and has remained architecturally more intact and closer to its residential intentions. Finally the Earl of Moray caved in to the temptation to develop for profit the land he owned to the west, which he did in some style in the streets surrounding the monumental Moray Place. Like the Old Town, Craig's classical ranks have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995.

This walk takes about three hours, at a leisurely pace. The main highlights are Calton Hill, George Street, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and Charlotte Square, and equally the splendour of the surroundings and the many fine views. There are two opportunities for a particularly impressive view of the whole city and its setting: the first is from the Scott Monument, at the start of the walk, the other is from the top of Calton Hill a little way into the walk.

From the Scott Monument, look east to see the North Bridge (which made the New Town possible in the first place) soaring over the expanse of Waverley Station's roof.