George Street & Castle Street: Craig's Perfect Grid
Why is it significant?
Stop at the crossroads where Castle Street cuts across George Street, and turn to look south. At the end of the street, filling the frame like a painted backdrop in a theatre, sits the Castle on its rock. That is no accident. That is the plan.
Key Facts
| Place | George Street & Castle Street: Craig's Perfect Grid |
|---|---|
| Address | George Street at Castle Street, Edinburgh EH2 2HN, UK |
| Geo Coordinates | 55.95260, -3.20350 |
| Part of Walk | Edinburgh's New Town: Georgian Squares, Crescents and the Plan That Built a City |
| Generated | Generated |
Stop at the crossroads where Castle Street cuts across George Street, and turn to look south. At the end of the street, filling the frame like a painted backdrop in a theatre, sits the Castle on its rock. That is no accident. That is the plan.
In 1766 the town council held a competition for a new town on the fields north of the Nor' Loch, and the winner was a young, almost unknown architect called James Craig. His final plan, adopted in 1767, was beautifully simple: three parallel streets, a square at each end, and two narrow lanes in between. The outer streets, Princes Street and Queen Street, were to be built on one side only, so their houses would look out forever, south to the Old Town and north to the hills of Fife. George Street, the spine, was made extremely wide, and every cross street was lined up with a view.
The names were a love letter to the new royal family. George for King George the Third, Queen Street and Charlotte Square for his wife, Princes Street for their sons, Hanover and Frederick for the dynasty. The story goes that the southern street was first meant to be St Giles Street, until the King objected, because St Giles was also the name of a notorious London slum. Craig even printed lines from a poem by his uncle, James Thomson, the author of Rule, Britannia, on his plan.
Craig never had another success on that scale, and he died in 1795 far from rich. The city he drew, though, still stands almost exactly as he drew it, and since 1995 the New Town and the Old Town have together been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The bronze figure in the road is Thomas Chalmers, leader of the Disruption you heard about. Just down North Castle Street, at number 39, Walter Scott lived for more than twenty years until his ruin, and at number 32 Castle Street, Kenneth Grahame, the author of The Wind in the Willows, was born in 1859. Continue west, and enter Charlotte Square at its south-east corner.