page_title: The Georgian House, Edinburgh
section_title: The New Town and Charlotte Square
hierarchical_section_title: The Georgian House, Edinburgh / The New Town and Charlotte Square
caption_attribution_description: The north side of Charlotte Square, Edinburgh. Designed by architect Robert Adam and completed 1800. The buildings shown include Bute House, official residence of the First Minister of Scotland. Taken by supergolden on 25th March 2006. Montage created using autostitch. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/supergolden/118179596/
context_page_description: The Georgian House is an 18th-century townhouse situated at No. 7 Charlotte Square in the heart of the historic New Town of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has been restored and furnished by the National Trust for Scotland, and is operated as a popular tourist attraction, with over 40,000 visitors annually.
context_section_description: In 1766 a young unknown architect named James Craig won the competition to design a layout for Edinburgh's first New Town. By this time in the mid-18th century Edinburgh had become extremely overcrowded and the rich and poor alike were living in very close quarters in cramped conditions in the tenements of the medieval Old Town. The New Town was to be constructed to the north of the Old Town, and the intention was that it would remain a strictly residential development, a privileged enclave for the wealthy away from the squalor found in the Old Town. Today visitors can experience what life was like in the Old Town by visiting Gladstone's Land on the Royal Mile, which is a restored tenement building set up as the dwelling of a 17th-century merchant.
  Craig's design for the New Town formed a grid-like pattern consisting three principal streets and two large squares with gardens for the residents use. The main thoroughfare was George Street (named after King George III), right at the centre of the development running east to west; this was the only main street to have houses constructed on both sides. Princes Street (named in honour of the King's sons) which ran parallel to George Street was designed as a terrace (meaning that it had houses on only one side) overlooking what was to become Prince's Street Gardens and facing the Old Town lay to the south of the grid. Queen Street (named for Queen Charlotte, who was the wife of George III) ran parallel to George Street on the north side of the New Town. It also had houses on one side only and again gardens were laid out for the use of the residents of the street (these gardens are still private today).
  At either end of George Street were the squares. At the east end of the New Town was St Andrew Square and at the west end was Charlotte Square. The original intention was to name this western square as St George's Square in order that both patron saints of Scotland and England were represented. However, another square on the south side of the Old Town had already been built and named George Square, so to avoid any confusion between the two the New Town square was renamed in honour of the Queen. Craig's grid design was enhanced by other streets and lanes in between the main three, including Rose Street and Thistle Street. This patriotic street naming was a deliberate attempt to show that Scotland was now fully on board with the Union with England after the final defeat of the Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Three further streets which ran on a north to south axis completed Craig's grid: these were Hannover Street (named after the royal dynasty), Frederick Street (named after the father of George III) and Castle Street, for the views of Edinburgh Castle which the streets position affords.
  The New Town was built from St Andrew's Square in the east and continued west. Critics of the development began to complain that the streets were too plain and regimented and that there was a general lack of architectural merit. In response to this, Scotland's foremost architect of the day Robert Adam was asked to draw up elevations for Charlotte Square so that the New Town could be finished off with a flourish of grandeur and elegance. Adam drew up the plans in 1791, but he did not live to see the completion of the square, since he died in 1792 just as building work was commencing. The first houses were completed on the north elevation of the square and were ready for occupation by the mid-1790s. No. 7, today's Georgian House, was completed in 1796 and was purchased for £1,800 by John Lamont to serve as his townhouse to be used during the social season.
caption: The north side of Robert Adam's Charlotte Square. No. 6 or Bute House, official residence of the First Minister of Scotland, is in the centre and the Georgian House No. 7 is next door on the left of the picture.
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