The New Town Completed around 1850, Edinburgh’s New Town is not as new as its name might suggest. Designed as an escape (for the rich) from the medieval streets on the other side of the Nor Loch (now Princes St Gardens, then a pestilent swamp formerly used for witch trials), its Georgian grid plan is both an architectural gem and a physical demonstration of political propaganda. Street names were chosen to solidify the Act of Union, with the central grid of Princes St, George St (after then-monarch George III) and Queen St interspersed with Rose and Thistle Streets to symbolise the respective emblematic flowers of England and Scotland. They are intersected by Hanover St, after the new Hanoverian dynasty, and Frederick St, after Big George’s dad. Further down you will find Cumberland St, charmingly named in honour of the socalled Butcher of Cumberland, who did a great job massacring us Scots at the Battle of Culloden. Now, the New Town is home to most of Edinburgh’s chain stores and restaurants, with a few local favourites hidden among them.
THE SKINNY
It is also home to a hilarious new shopping centre whose design is based on the poo emoji, a prominent statue of a man who delayed the abolition of slavery by 15 years, and some genuine national treasures in the neoclassical surrounds of the National Galleries of Scotland.
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