One of Europe's greatest examples of Georgian town planning, the New Town combines crescents, squares and circuses into a harmonious whole.

By the mid 18th century the crowded tenements and narrow streets of old Edinburgh were no longer adequate to house the population and institutions of the burgeoning city. A competition was launched with a view to building a fine `New Town' to the north; the winning design was by James Craig and construction began in 1767. The Nor' Loch, on the site of Princes Street Gardens was drained, and the North Bridge built to link the Old Town with the new. The first stage comprised three symmetrical streets, George, Queen and Princes, linking St Andrew and Charlotte Squares, the triumphant façades of the latter designed by Robert Adam in 1791. The more prosperous citizens flocked to live here necessitating further development. Robert Reid, William Playfair and James Gillespie Graham laid out the magnificent streets around Great King Street, the Royal Circus and Moray Place, a highly successful amalgam of interlinking crescents, octagons and ovals. This was followed between 1817 and 1860 by the construction of the West End, centring around Melville Crescent.