Edinburgh New Town Phase 2, Properties

Edinburgh New Town, Phase Two Photos, Architect, Date, Building, History

New Town Phase 2, Edinburgh : Architecture

New Town Properties, Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh New Town Phase Two

Edinburgh New Town Phase One was designed by James Craig for Lord Drummond, Edinburgh, Scotland

Heriot Row, Royal Circus, Great King Street, Moray Place & other such addresses in Edinburgh New Town

Wemyss Place building – recently refurbished by Kenneth Reid Architects:
Wemyss Place building
Wemyss Place building : photo © Adrian Welch 2006

India Street: steps up from Circus Place:
India Street
photo © Adrian Welch 2006

Heriot Row – looking east:
Heriot Row
image © Adrian Welch 2006

New Town Phase II Buildings

The second phase of the New Town – Reid; Elliot; Playfair; Graham; Raeburn – was built between 1802 and around 1823, to the North and off the plateau. The architecture is more regular and influenced by the buildings of Robert Adam in Charlotte Square which created subtle order by grouping individual houses as ‘palaces’. Anyone wishing to buy a plot there would have to live in a design by Adam, part of the whole ensemble – a great piece of neoclassical townscape.

Ainslie Place – looking west:
Ainslie Place
image © Adrian Welch 2008

The New Town is one of the greatest assemblies of Georgian architecture in Britain – others include Bath of course, and London which strongly influenced it. It is certainly the largest gathering of domestic neoclassical houses in the world.

Various proposals had been suggested and drawn up over the years but it was George Drummond’s proposals that are generally agreed to be the major influence on the city expanding across the (Nor’ Loch) valley to what were fields. A bridge (North Bridge, 1772) was proposed and the draining of the Nor’ Loch. James Craig won the competition at the age of just 23 in 1766.

One of the finest elements is Moray Place on the Moray Estate:

moray place, Phase 2
no larger image of this, sorry; all the images below do have larger images linked however:

Moray Place, north-east quarter
Edinburgh New Town: Phase 2

Moray Place, south-east quarter
Moray Place, New Town

Heriot Row looking East
Heriot Row

Typical New Town street & architecture – strong corner blocks
St Vincent Street

Royal Circus – townhouses subsumed into sweeping palace
Edinburgh Crescent

St Stephen’s Church by William Playfair
St Stephen's Church

St Stephen’s Church seen from Circus Lane
St Stephen's Church

All photos above © Adrian Welch

Edinburgh New Town Phase I for reference:

James Craig (1744-95) famously won the competition to masterplan a New Town when only 22 years old in 1766; the New Town gradually absorbed much of the professional classes from the increasingly ramshackle Old Town. It was mostly built of sandstone from Craigleath Quarry. Princes Street (1805) is uninteresting despite its fame, but Charlotte Square and George Street (after George III) contain many good works.

Edinburgh New Town – all buildings, all phases

New Town Phase 3 Development
Streets by William Henry Playfair 1789-1857:-

Blenheim Place, Brunswick Street, Brunton Place, Carlton Terrace, Elm Row, Hillside Crescent, Leopold Place, Montgomery Street, Regent Terrace, Royal Terrace, Windsor Street

Crescent in Phase Three
Atholl Crescent
image © Adrian Welch 2006

Some modern buildings in the New Town:

New Town Phase 2: Moray Place
House by Richard Murphy
Phase 2 House
Moray Place Edinburgh

New Town Phase 2: Fettes Row
Housing by Reiach and Hall + Oberlanders Architects
Edinburgh Buildings
Fettes Row terraces

New Town Phase 2: Circus Lane
Houses by Richard Murphy

Edinburgh Mews
Circus Lane house

New Town Phase 2: Dean Bank Property
New Apartments by CDA Architects

Edinburgh Flats
Eyre Place project for Applecross

New Town Phase 2: Dean Bank
Housing by Richard Murphy

edinburgh building
Dean Bank Lane

New Town Shops
Jenners
New Town Harvey Nichols

The Glasite Meeting House, 33 Barony Street, EH3 6NX
1835-36
Alexander Black
Pulpit by David Bryce
Website: www.ahss.org.uk

The French Institute, 13 Randolph Crescent, EH3 7TT

Inhabited in 1839, acquired by French government in 1945
Website: www.ifecosse.org.uk

Danish Cultural Institute, 3 Doune Terrace, EH3 6DY

James Gillespie
Danish Cultural Institute since 1957
Georgian house with contemporary Danish design.
Website: www.dancult.co.uk

Edinburgh New Town Photos

Edinburgh Walking Tours

Buildings / photos for the Edinburgh New Town Architecture pages welcome

Edinburgh New Town Phase Two Buildings : page

Edinburgh