0:00:01 > 0:00:04250 years ago, Edinburgh was in crisis.
0:00:08 > 0:00:12Nicknamed Auld Reekie for its foul stench,
0:00:12 > 0:00:14the Scottish capital was overcrowded,
0:00:14 > 0:00:16filthy and falling apart.
0:00:17 > 0:00:19After Scotland joined the Union,
0:00:19 > 0:00:22the King and the Parliament had left for London,
0:00:22 > 0:00:26and Scotland itself was losing its way.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30Scotland is trying to find what its place is in a world
0:00:30 > 0:00:33that has changed from a medieval world to a modern world.
0:00:37 > 0:00:42So, in 1766, Edinburgh had a brilliant idea.
0:00:42 > 0:00:47It decided to start again and launched a competition to design
0:00:47 > 0:00:51a completely new town from scratch.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54There was almost a revolutionary atmosphere in the air.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57The New Town was an attempt to bounce back.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01The winning plan became an icon of the Scottish Enlightenment
0:01:01 > 0:01:06and transformed Edinburgh into what is now a Unesco World Heritage Site,
0:01:06 > 0:01:10the most perfect Georgian city on earth.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13So how did Auld Reekie do it?
0:01:13 > 0:01:15This reclaimed Edinburgh's authority,
0:01:15 > 0:01:18this whole project was about a new start.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21Who benefitted?
0:01:21 > 0:01:24It was social cleansing, wasn't it?
0:01:24 > 0:01:28If we build a place that only "nice people" can afford
0:01:28 > 0:01:32to go into, then we remove all the problems.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36How did these streets change Scotland?
0:01:36 > 0:01:40This is the story of how Edinburgh was reborn
0:01:40 > 0:01:44thanks to a visionary plan of a city of the future -
0:01:44 > 0:01:46a New Town for a new age.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03Welcome to the Camera Obscura.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07My name is Elise and I'm going to be giving you a quick tour of Edinburgh
0:02:07 > 0:02:09using our amazing optical device.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13This is Edinburgh Castle.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17If we go down the steep edge of Castle Hill,
0:02:17 > 0:02:20you'll notice some of Edinburgh's Old Town.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22Edinburgh's Old Town is higgledy-piggledy -
0:02:22 > 0:02:26it was built as they needed new streets as more people moved into
0:02:26 > 0:02:30the town, and at one point every resident in Edinburgh
0:02:30 > 0:02:33lived squeezed into this tiny walled city.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36They built right on top of each other,
0:02:36 > 0:02:40making Edinburgh one of the first places with high-rise buildings.
0:02:40 > 0:02:41No proper sewage treatment,
0:02:41 > 0:02:44which meant that it was literally thrown out the window
0:02:44 > 0:02:46and running down the streets,
0:02:46 > 0:02:49meant people were ill. And the city planners decided
0:02:49 > 0:02:53that we needed a new Edinburgh, so they created the New Town.
0:02:53 > 0:02:54If you take a look at a map,
0:02:54 > 0:02:58you'll see that it's all in grids and nice squares,
0:02:58 > 0:03:01and we also have parks and gardens
0:03:01 > 0:03:03perfectly spaced throughout the city.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12Today, Edinburgh's New Town, including Princes Street,
0:03:12 > 0:03:15George Street and St Andrew's Square,
0:03:15 > 0:03:18is the heart of the capital.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21But until the middle of the 18th century,
0:03:21 > 0:03:24there was nothing here but fields.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26The whole city was on the other side of what is now
0:03:26 > 0:03:31Princes Street Gardens, walled in and protected by the castle.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36A very different kind of capital for a very different kind of country.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46For the vast bulk of Scotland's history,
0:03:46 > 0:03:50Edinburgh is the only town of any size
0:03:50 > 0:03:53right up until the middle of the 18th century.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56And it's the legal centre of the country,
0:03:56 > 0:03:59it's the religious centre of the country.
0:03:59 > 0:04:00If you want to get on in Scotland,
0:04:00 > 0:04:03you're probably going to go to Edinburgh at some point.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07But Edinburgh is absolutely crammed into this tiny space.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13There's a celebrated view of Edinburgh
0:04:13 > 0:04:17drawn in the mid-17th century. The population then was about 20,000 -
0:04:17 > 0:04:19it had doubled in the previous century.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22By the middle of the 18th century, the population was 40,000,
0:04:22 > 0:04:24still confined on the same narrow ridge.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28But let's imagine all of those people living together
0:04:28 > 0:04:31in nine-storey tenements with no plumbing,
0:04:31 > 0:04:37with no electric light and in a city which was essentially kind of
0:04:37 > 0:04:39a quarter of a mile across.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46Confined within the city walls, Edinburgh was forced to build up,
0:04:46 > 0:04:48rather than out.
0:04:48 > 0:04:50On the Royal Mile,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53one 17th-century survivor gives a vivid sense of what this
0:04:53 > 0:04:56high-rise lifestyle was like.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59It's a building called Gladstone's Land,
0:04:59 > 0:05:01"land" being the old term for tenement.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05Moving up this tight turnpike stair,
0:05:05 > 0:05:09you get the sense that every little bit of space has to be used
0:05:09 > 0:05:14to its best effect, cos there's not much to go round.
0:05:14 > 0:05:16It's got at least six storeys to it.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20Up is really the main way to go in Old Town Edinburgh,
0:05:20 > 0:05:22and Gladstone's Land can be considered one of the world's
0:05:22 > 0:05:24first skyscrapers in that sense.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27We heard that term referred to in Edinburgh
0:05:27 > 0:05:29in the 16th and 17th centuries.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34This narrow building would have been split into flats,
0:05:34 > 0:05:37most no bigger than a single room.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41The whole idea of having a private space for different activities,
0:05:41 > 0:05:44for cooking, for sleeping, for going to the bathroom -
0:05:44 > 0:05:48that's entirely new. It's really a 19th-, 20th-century idea.
0:05:48 > 0:05:50Before that, it all happened here.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56So, what we have to imagine is a lot of people moving around through
0:05:56 > 0:06:00their daily activities. Everything that we imagine - going to work,
0:06:00 > 0:06:04taking care of children - happening within and outside our modern homes
0:06:04 > 0:06:07would've happened in this very small space.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10A lot of people wouldn't be terribly happy if this was
0:06:10 > 0:06:14their room at university, but this was actually a whole family
0:06:14 > 0:06:18living in this space at one point. It gives you the sense of just how
0:06:18 > 0:06:20cramped in people in Edinburgh's Old Town were.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27Overcrowding wasn't the only reason why Edinburgh was in decline.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32Its political power and prestige was draining away.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36Once the capital of an independent Scotland,
0:06:36 > 0:06:39with its own royal court and parliament,
0:06:39 > 0:06:43Edinburgh had suffered in the wake of the Acts of Union that joined
0:06:43 > 0:06:45Scotland to England.
0:06:45 > 0:06:50With the 1606 Union of Crowns, the King had left for London.
0:06:51 > 0:06:56Then, in 1707, the Parliament moved south as well.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00Many rich and influential Scots had followed.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04Edinburgh was in danger of becoming a backwater.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07That was obviously completely devastating for Edinburgh
0:07:07 > 0:07:12and for Scotland, because it did kind of take away the last source
0:07:12 > 0:07:15of control over the city and the country.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18Scotland in general, and Edinburgh in particular, is beginning to go,
0:07:18 > 0:07:21"What is our role going to be in the modern world?"
0:07:23 > 0:07:27As it turned out, Edinburgh's role was more significant than anyone
0:07:27 > 0:07:32could have guessed. This was the age of the Scottish Enlightenment.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35In the mid-18th century, Edinburgh's writers,
0:07:35 > 0:07:38scientists and philosophers were making the city
0:07:38 > 0:07:41the intellectual capital of Europe.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44There's a lovely quote, a visitor to Edinburgh who said that
0:07:44 > 0:07:47he could stand at the cross of Edinburgh and in a few minutes
0:07:47 > 0:07:51take 50 men of genius and learning by the hand.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54And they were creating the future.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58James Hutton transformed our understanding of geology
0:07:58 > 0:08:00and revealed the true age of the earth.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04Joseph Black's discoveries in chemistry laid the foundations
0:08:04 > 0:08:06of modern science.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09Adam Smith developed modern economics.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13And David Hume's philosophy put forward the most radical
0:08:13 > 0:08:16and modern idea of all - a world without God.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22But how did this explosion of creativity emerge
0:08:22 > 0:08:24from crumbling old Edinburgh?
0:08:24 > 0:08:26If you are living in Edinburgh,
0:08:26 > 0:08:30you can't do anything but talk to your neighbours all the time.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33You go to the pub and you discourse there,
0:08:33 > 0:08:38and that seems to me to be a very stimulating place to create
0:08:38 > 0:08:42the kind of atmosphere that then leads on to the kind of
0:08:42 > 0:08:45revolutionary ideas that people like David Hume and Adam Smith
0:08:45 > 0:08:46and others are coming up with.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49The fact that you have all of these people
0:08:49 > 0:08:53in such close tenancy together -
0:08:53 > 0:08:54physicists speaking to artists...
0:08:54 > 0:08:58You'd have scientists who would be speaking to people from the church,
0:08:58 > 0:09:02you would have this meeting together of minds and of ideas.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09The history of Gladstone's Land shows how this social mixing worked,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12with different classes living on different floors
0:09:12 > 0:09:13of the same building.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19Right now we're actually on the first floor, just above street level,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22and that was considered to be absolutely ideal,
0:09:22 > 0:09:24because that way you weren't down,
0:09:24 > 0:09:26mired in the filth of the streets itself,
0:09:26 > 0:09:29but you also didn't have to climb up too high with big jugs of water
0:09:29 > 0:09:31or anything like that.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34Below us you would have had things like a tavern
0:09:34 > 0:09:37or a shop, so that's where the mercantile activity goes on -
0:09:37 > 0:09:40that's really the hustle and bustle of the streets coming right up
0:09:40 > 0:09:42to the walls of Gladstone's Land.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46And then above that you would've had additional tenants as well.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50We know, for instance, that there was a joiner, a clergyman,
0:09:50 > 0:09:54a lieutenant and a tavern owner all operating within these walls.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57That's a remarkable mix-up of classes who,
0:09:57 > 0:09:59in many other cities throughout the European world,
0:09:59 > 0:10:01wouldn't have rubbed shoulders very much at all.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04So that means ideas are being exchanged,
0:10:04 > 0:10:06people are seeing how the other side lives,
0:10:06 > 0:10:09and that would've gone a long way to sort of fermenting the conditions
0:10:09 > 0:10:12that would lead to the Enlightenment and these things that Edinburgh
0:10:12 > 0:10:14is now so world-famous for.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20Another key figure of the Scottish Enlightenment
0:10:20 > 0:10:22was its greatest architect, Robert Adam.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27Adam had absorbed fashionable neoclassical ideas about
0:10:27 > 0:10:31architecture and urban planning during trips to Europe
0:10:31 > 0:10:33and brought them back to Scotland.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40These ideas were starting to inspire the architects and town planners
0:10:40 > 0:10:46of Edinburgh, and during the 1750s a visionary idea began to take shape
0:10:46 > 0:10:51in the city - a proposal to extend Edinburgh itself,
0:10:51 > 0:10:55create a spacious new quarter to appeal to the great and the good,
0:10:55 > 0:10:59and bring prosperity and pride back to the Scottish capital.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03The prime mover in this wasn't a philosopher or an architect,
0:11:03 > 0:11:08but a politician - Provost George Drummond.
0:11:08 > 0:11:13I think people like Drummond began to see a brave new world.
0:11:13 > 0:11:19They began to see the future in a kind of settled state of society,
0:11:19 > 0:11:21a settled economy.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24Drummond and his allies argued that the condition of Edinburgh
0:11:24 > 0:11:27was dragging the whole country down.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30The defeat of the Jacobite uprising in 1746
0:11:30 > 0:11:35had settled Scotland's position as a partner in the Union.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38Now it needed a capital city fit for the future.
0:11:40 > 0:11:45And he, dare I say, unlike some modern politicians,
0:11:45 > 0:11:49because the system was perhaps slightly less democratic, and people
0:11:49 > 0:11:51weren't thinking purely about the next election,
0:11:51 > 0:11:56was able to be a man of vision and to look a long way forward.
0:12:01 > 0:12:06Inspired, Edinburgh City Council started thinking big.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10They bought a large piece of farmland north of the Old Town
0:12:10 > 0:12:13with the idea of building a whole new city from scratch.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18And in 1766,
0:12:18 > 0:12:24they launched a competition to find the best design for this New Town.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27What happened next is still something of a mystery.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32In the spring of '66, they hold a competition,
0:12:32 > 0:12:36and it's really frustrating that we don't really know what happened
0:12:36 > 0:12:38in that competition.
0:12:38 > 0:12:40Extraordinarily, the winning plan wasn't published.
0:12:42 > 0:12:47The city did name the winner - 26-year-old architect James Craig -
0:12:47 > 0:12:52but to this day no-one knows what his original plan looked like.
0:12:52 > 0:12:57Instead, it has become one of the New Town's most enduring myths.
0:12:58 > 0:13:03There is a fascinating map produced by a man called John Lawrie
0:13:03 > 0:13:06in late 1776, which showed a plan of the New Town
0:13:06 > 0:13:08in the form of a Union Jack.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11He was well connected with the council and there is speculation
0:13:11 > 0:13:14that he had seen this plan that they were trying to keep secret.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18There is a view that that Union Jack plan is the James Craig plan,
0:13:18 > 0:13:20not a view that I hold at all.
0:13:20 > 0:13:25I simply do not see how such a grossly impractical plan
0:13:25 > 0:13:27could possibly have won the competition.
0:13:31 > 0:13:33Over the next few months,
0:13:33 > 0:13:37Craig's plan was revised behind closed doors by a committee,
0:13:37 > 0:13:39including Robert Adam's brother John,
0:13:39 > 0:13:41with whom Craig had apprenticed.
0:13:42 > 0:13:48But when the official design was unveiled to the public in July 1767,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51it became clear that this was one of the most ambitious
0:13:51 > 0:13:54city planning projects Europe had ever seen.
0:13:56 > 0:14:00Today, a unique copy of this valuable document is stored
0:14:00 > 0:14:04in a slightly less elegant address at the National Records Of Scotland.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11"The plan of the new streets and squares intended for
0:14:11 > 0:14:13"the City Of Edinburgh.
0:14:13 > 0:14:18"This plan was begun to be carried into execution anno 1767 by
0:14:18 > 0:14:24"the Right Honourable Gilbert Laurie Esq, Lord Provost."
0:14:24 > 0:14:27So this would have been engraved from an original drawing
0:14:27 > 0:14:30that Craig had made, and then it would have been mass-produced
0:14:30 > 0:14:33and distributed - published so that the masses could see what was going
0:14:33 > 0:14:36to be done with their New Town.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39It's been through Craig's hands at some point.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41He's given it a dedication in the corner,
0:14:41 > 0:14:45"To Alexander Alison Esq, from the Author."
0:14:45 > 0:14:48So, although he didn't hand-draw it,
0:14:48 > 0:14:51he's hand-gifted it to somebody and signed it.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53Having trained in Enlightenment Edinburgh,
0:14:53 > 0:14:56Craig had absorbed its neoclassical ideas.
0:14:56 > 0:15:01His bold design reflected this with wide, straight streets
0:15:01 > 0:15:05that represented a complete break from the Old Town's past.
0:15:05 > 0:15:07It says here at the side that George Street,
0:15:07 > 0:15:09which was to be the principal street, was going to be
0:15:09 > 0:15:13100 feet wide, and that's obviously a vast difference
0:15:13 > 0:15:16to the Old Town, which is more or less built up on top of itself,
0:15:16 > 0:15:19streets very narrow, tight closes.
0:15:19 > 0:15:24So this is a real structured, enlightened space for the elite
0:15:24 > 0:15:27of Edinburgh to move into. It represents a break with the past,
0:15:27 > 0:15:32so the Old Town and old Edinburgh is perhaps not part of the vision of
0:15:32 > 0:15:37the future, and the town council were wanting to keep all of these
0:15:37 > 0:15:40enlightened people who might otherwise have gone to live
0:15:40 > 0:15:44in more salubrious environments in other cities across Britain
0:15:44 > 0:15:48and the Empire. But with this New Town you've got a new vision
0:15:48 > 0:15:50of how these people, who are
0:15:50 > 0:15:52going to build the future of Britain and Scotland,
0:15:52 > 0:15:54can do it from Edinburgh and can do it from
0:15:54 > 0:15:56this wonderful planned environment.
0:15:56 > 0:16:01But, above all, the plan was a political statement.
0:16:01 > 0:16:06It was designed to cement Scotland's loyalty to the Union and the King.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10The plan was discussed at the very highest level.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14The King and Queen were looking at this plan.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16So, in fact, what they do is they then really go for it -
0:16:16 > 0:16:20the whole city becomes this kind of symbol
0:16:20 > 0:16:23of Hanoverian loyalty and union.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27It really shows this idea that you could make the Union take
0:16:27 > 0:16:31physical form and that the New Town was going to be emblematic of
0:16:31 > 0:16:35the new Scotland or the new North Britain that was being built,
0:16:35 > 0:16:37literally street by street.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41At one end, the west end, you've got St George's Square -
0:16:41 > 0:16:43it would become Charlotte Square.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45At the other end you've got St Andrew's Square.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48So that's the two patron saints of Scotland and England
0:16:48 > 0:16:51coming together in this New Town environment.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54The patriotism, obviously, in the street names -
0:16:54 > 0:16:56George Street, Frederick Street, Hanover Street.
0:16:59 > 0:17:04Nothing like this had ever been attempted in Scotland before.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08If it worked, Edinburgh would be completely transformed, and so,
0:17:08 > 0:17:13it was hoped, would Scotland's status within the United Kingdom
0:17:13 > 0:17:14and the wider world.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18I mean, it's revolutionary. If you just look at a map
0:17:18 > 0:17:20and you look at the scale of the Old Town and you put
0:17:20 > 0:17:24the New Town on it, you'd probably think it's on a different scale
0:17:24 > 0:17:28till you realise it's the same place. Completely revolutionary.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31The plan was officially accepted.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34The starting gun had been fired for construction to begin.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41Building was to start at the east end of the site,
0:17:41 > 0:17:44around St Andrew's Square, and progress towards its climax
0:17:44 > 0:17:46in the west, Charlotte Square.
0:17:49 > 0:17:51There was just one problem -
0:17:51 > 0:17:55Craig's plan showed streets but not individual buildings.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59Local builders could buy plots and put up what they liked.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02This piecemeal approach didn't always live up
0:18:02 > 0:18:05to Craig's idealised vision.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08More than five decades later, in 1819,
0:18:08 > 0:18:12the New Town as it was actually built was painstakingly drawn,
0:18:12 > 0:18:16house by house, by engraver Robert Kirkwood.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20Today, we can bring this extraordinary map to life,
0:18:20 > 0:18:23creating a vivid sense of the original Georgian cityscape.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26It begins here in Thistle Court,
0:18:26 > 0:18:29where the New Town's first houses still stand.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33This building here in Thistle Court is an example of
0:18:33 > 0:18:37amongst the first buildings, that marvellous year in 1767
0:18:37 > 0:18:41when people bought into the idea and were buying plots.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43It gives us an opportunity to look at the people who were actually
0:18:43 > 0:18:46responsible for building the New Town plan up -
0:18:46 > 0:18:51the painters, the slaters, the glaziers, the masons.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53Looking at this building here might not knock you over,
0:18:53 > 0:18:56but it does give you a chance to assess and think,
0:18:56 > 0:19:01"How do you build up a magic, marvellous plan of great scale
0:19:01 > 0:19:04"and ambition and make it into a reality?"
0:19:04 > 0:19:08That meant letting it loose to a variety of architects and tradesmen
0:19:08 > 0:19:11to build what they wanted to their own budgets.
0:19:13 > 0:19:17So, right from the off, the New Town diverted from Craig's plan.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21This little courtyard was never on the original design,
0:19:21 > 0:19:25but the builder who bought the plot added it anyway.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27His name was John Young.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33John Young was a wright, or a carpenter,
0:19:33 > 0:19:36within the Incorporation of Wrights and Masons of Edinburgh.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40That was, like, the trade union, the guild, as they would say,
0:19:40 > 0:19:43in England that ran Edinburgh's construction business.
0:19:46 > 0:19:48It's one of the biggest, if not THE biggest,
0:19:48 > 0:19:53urban planning projects in the country. And here's John Young -
0:19:53 > 0:19:56sees his moment as so many of the other people in the incorporation did -
0:19:56 > 0:19:59"I can make money here. There's business here for me."
0:19:59 > 0:20:05Thistle Court represents his first go at running in the business.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10Young's background was humble,
0:20:10 > 0:20:14but over the next 50 years he would become one of the key drivers
0:20:14 > 0:20:17of this massive construction project.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22He doesn't come with a baggage of fame like Robert Adam and James Adam.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26He doesn't come from a substantively successful architectural family.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29So he's a newbie, he's a new start.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33He's a guy who wants to get ahead in business and he sees the New Town
0:20:33 > 0:20:35as being his opportunity to do that.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41Thistle Court was a modest start for the New Town,
0:20:41 > 0:20:43but around the corner,
0:20:43 > 0:20:48work was beginning on a building that did showcase Georgian grandeur
0:20:48 > 0:20:49on a massive scale.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55Like Thistle Court, it also played fast and loose with Craig's design.
0:20:57 > 0:20:59Today, this building is the headquarters
0:20:59 > 0:21:01of the Royal Bank Of Scotland.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07Ruth Reid is the bank's official archivist.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12When the plans were originally drawn up for the New Town,
0:21:12 > 0:21:15the spot where we're standing now should have been a church standing
0:21:15 > 0:21:18at the end of George Street, facing another church at the other end.
0:21:18 > 0:21:19It was a key spot, very important,
0:21:19 > 0:21:22so you'd put a special building like a church on it.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25But Sir Lawrence Dundas, who was a very wealthy
0:21:25 > 0:21:30self-made man - he was an MP for Edinburgh, very influential -
0:21:30 > 0:21:33saw the plans and saw that this would be a very good place
0:21:33 > 0:21:35for him to put a nice house for himself.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38He already owned the land behind the spot,
0:21:38 > 0:21:41so he bought the plot that should've been for the church so that he could
0:21:41 > 0:21:44make a forecourt for a building so that he could put a house here.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49In a lot of ways it's a bit like a country house plonked right
0:21:49 > 0:21:51in the middle of the city.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59This house represented a decisive break with Edinburgh's past.
0:22:00 > 0:22:04Its fashionable elegance told the world that its owner was
0:22:04 > 0:22:06a modern man of taste and refinement.
0:22:08 > 0:22:09A Georgian.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13This room is one of the few ones in the house that actually remains
0:22:13 > 0:22:16as Sir Lawrence Dundas would have recognised it in his own house.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19It was his dining room, one of the most smart,
0:22:19 > 0:22:21important rooms in a house like that, because that's where
0:22:21 > 0:22:24you'd be entertaining your important guests.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30It's got this beautiful ceiling, which is original,
0:22:30 > 0:22:32but one of the key features, actually,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35is the view that you would've had out of the windows,
0:22:35 > 0:22:36because although it's Harvey Nichols now,
0:22:36 > 0:22:40in Sir Lawrence's day he had bought the land next door to make sure that
0:22:40 > 0:22:43nobody could build there so that he could preserve that view out across
0:22:43 > 0:22:45the Firth of Forth and out to Fife.
0:22:47 > 0:22:49At the moment the building is being refurbished.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53A lot of the decorative features had got quite tired and needed
0:22:53 > 0:22:56a bit of attention, so they're just being repainted, smartened up,
0:22:56 > 0:22:58made to be what they should be.
0:23:00 > 0:23:05Sir Lawrence Dundas's house became the centrepiece of the New Town's
0:23:05 > 0:23:09first great Georgian feature - St Andrew's Square.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11As more houses sprang up around it,
0:23:11 > 0:23:15this was becoming Edinburgh's most desirable address.
0:23:15 > 0:23:17But with Sir Lawrence sitting pretty,
0:23:17 > 0:23:21a new site for a church had to be found.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24In the end, it was built a few hundred yards down the road
0:23:24 > 0:23:27on George Street.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30In keeping with the New Town's Unionist symbolism,
0:23:30 > 0:23:34it was dedicated to both St Andrew and St George.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38For the New Town's early residents, it symbolised something else
0:23:38 > 0:23:40as well - community.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46What we have in this building is a key survivor of time,
0:23:46 > 0:23:51a key survivor of what the New Town was about to the people who lived
0:23:51 > 0:23:54in the first New Town. This represented, in so many ways,
0:23:54 > 0:23:57not a place of faith but also a place of hope,
0:23:57 > 0:24:00a place of hope for a new beginning for the entire project to live on,
0:24:00 > 0:24:04a public building, a church, a place for everybody.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10Churches were a central part of what people did with their day -
0:24:10 > 0:24:15they went to church three times a day if they could.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19It meant so much to the residents of the New Town to have a church.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21Instead of trotting over the bridge to the New Church
0:24:21 > 0:24:22or St Giles Cathedral,
0:24:22 > 0:24:26they could have a place to worship here in the New Town,
0:24:26 > 0:24:28and for that it was really important.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41You raise your eyes to the ceiling as the sermon went on,
0:24:41 > 0:24:44what did you see? You see roses and thistles,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47the combination of St Andrew and St George,
0:24:47 > 0:24:49what the building actually stood for.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00Moving to George Street turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04The smaller plot forced the builders to rethink.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08The result was Britain's very first elliptical church,
0:25:08 > 0:25:10modelled on a concert hall.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15It's still one of Edinburgh's finest musical spaces.
0:25:15 > 0:25:20Music-making is actually made very easy here because the shape
0:25:20 > 0:25:24of the building brings the sound together - it merges it beautifully.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31I've only been here for a year and I absolutely love it here.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34It's a great building, I think, to have my voice carry in,
0:25:34 > 0:25:35and that's exciting.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39We sing repertoire from well before this church was built,
0:25:39 > 0:25:41music from the time it was built,
0:25:41 > 0:25:43and music right up to the present day that's just been written.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46It's nice to be able to think that you're kind of contributing to that
0:25:46 > 0:25:48kind of tradition of music,
0:25:48 > 0:25:52but also kind of looking forward and trying to see what
0:25:52 > 0:25:55the next 250 years of this building are maybe going to hold.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00With the church established and the community growing,
0:26:00 > 0:26:04Edinburgh's social centre of gravity was moving from the Old Town
0:26:04 > 0:26:08to the New, just as the council had hoped.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11Celebrity neighbours added to the appeal.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14In 1775, philosopher David Hume,
0:26:14 > 0:26:16now one of Edinburgh's most famous citizens,
0:26:16 > 0:26:20moved from the Old Town to St Andrew's Square, partly because,
0:26:20 > 0:26:23as a keen cook, he wanted a bigger kitchen.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29Hume's move was another sign that the New Town was becoming
0:26:29 > 0:26:32the place to live. But it did have one downside -
0:26:32 > 0:26:36for years it was also Britain's biggest building site,
0:26:36 > 0:26:38and like any big construction project,
0:26:38 > 0:26:42materials were in high demand.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45Wood was imported from Scandinavia.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48Slate for the roofs was brought in from the Highlands.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52But the material that would really define the look of the city
0:26:52 > 0:26:53was found closer to home.
0:26:55 > 0:26:56Stone.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06The place it came from has gone through some changes over the years.
0:27:10 > 0:27:11But if you know where to look,
0:27:11 > 0:27:15traces of Edinburgh's greatest sandstone quarry can still
0:27:15 > 0:27:18be found here, behind this supermarket.
0:27:18 > 0:27:23Graeme Hadden is in the stonemasonry business and has studied the history
0:27:23 > 0:27:25of this lost piece of the city.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34The Craigleith Quarry was the quarry that built so much of Edinburgh.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37It produced stone of such good quality,
0:27:37 > 0:27:40it became the stone of choice for the old city masters.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44It was our local building material and we were really blessed by having
0:27:44 > 0:27:47this quarry to help establish the city.
0:27:50 > 0:27:55Craigleith Quarry can be traced back to the early 17th century,
0:27:55 > 0:27:58when stone from here was used in Edinburgh Castle.
0:27:58 > 0:28:02It became one of Scotland's biggest and deepest.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05The quarry would be 100 metres below this.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09The quality of this stone was just so good,
0:28:09 > 0:28:12and you can see how somebody who wanted to say,
0:28:12 > 0:28:15"Look at me, I'm wealthy. Look at me, I'm successful,"
0:28:15 > 0:28:18would want to build in a stone such as Craigleith.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22You start to find bits like this where you really see
0:28:22 > 0:28:25what the natural stone would have been like.
0:28:25 > 0:28:26It's very, very fine grains,
0:28:26 > 0:28:31and it's that fineness which gives it its uniqueness.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35That let the masons work it and be able to work it really well,
0:28:35 > 0:28:37and because it's very, very hard,
0:28:37 > 0:28:39when you actually cut that stone and work that stone,
0:28:39 > 0:28:43you can start to apply really, really good quality detail.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47So, as that detail gets applied to the stone,
0:28:47 > 0:28:48it's not going to weather off,
0:28:48 > 0:28:51and you see the evidence of that all through the city.
0:28:53 > 0:28:54With no electricity,
0:28:54 > 0:28:58stonemasons used their bare hands to cut rocks from the face
0:28:58 > 0:29:02and shape them into blocks. Horses would drag the blocks
0:29:02 > 0:29:04up into the New Town building site.
0:29:05 > 0:29:07These blocks could be huge.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11The pillars of Edinburgh University's Old College
0:29:11 > 0:29:14are nine metres of solid Craigleith stone.
0:29:14 > 0:29:17There are stones there that are nine metres high.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20You probably couldn't get your arms round them, and these stones
0:29:20 > 0:29:25had to be taken from here to there and turned upright.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32The man who inspired this building boom, James Craig himself,
0:29:32 > 0:29:35was less involved in the dirty work of construction.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42He only designed one building for his model city - Physicians Hall,
0:29:42 > 0:29:44which was later demolished.
0:29:44 > 0:29:48The New Town he had envisioned was taking on a life of its own...
0:29:51 > 0:29:54..and the community itself was taking a hand in building it.
0:29:56 > 0:29:59Throughout the 1770s and into the 1780s,
0:29:59 > 0:30:05Edinburgh was starting to look and feel like a modern city,
0:30:05 > 0:30:09one where fashionable upper-class Scots wouldn't be ashamed to live.
0:30:11 > 0:30:16But the plan had omitted one thing central to Georgian social life -
0:30:16 > 0:30:18somewhere to have a party.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27Dances and social gatherings, known as assemblies,
0:30:27 > 0:30:31kept the wheels of upper-class Georgian society turning,
0:30:31 > 0:30:34so assembly rooms were a must.
0:30:37 > 0:30:40The assembly rooms in the Old Town were cramped,
0:30:40 > 0:30:43old-fashioned and too far away,
0:30:43 > 0:30:46so the New Town's residents raised ?6,000 -
0:30:46 > 0:30:49around ?5.5 million today -
0:30:49 > 0:30:52to build some new assembly rooms on George Street.
0:30:55 > 0:31:00More than 200 years on, they still serve their original purpose -
0:31:00 > 0:31:01fun.
0:31:03 > 0:31:07Russell Clegg is a heritage consultant and an expert
0:31:07 > 0:31:10in the history of this building and the people who used it.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15The assemblies at the Assembly Rooms on George Street
0:31:15 > 0:31:19were very grand occasions. The Assembly Rooms exist so that people
0:31:19 > 0:31:22can socialise and dance and get together,
0:31:22 > 0:31:24and with the New Town coming into being,
0:31:24 > 0:31:28lots of people that moved from the Old Town to the New Town
0:31:28 > 0:31:31wanted a venue where they could do those kinds of things.
0:31:32 > 0:31:34All the great and the good,
0:31:34 > 0:31:37the affluent middle classes who lived in the New Town
0:31:37 > 0:31:41just over here, would have been coming to a ball
0:31:41 > 0:31:44to dance, to meet folk, to show off.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47During this period,
0:31:47 > 0:31:50the New Town's great and good were captured in pen and ink
0:31:50 > 0:31:52by caricaturist John Kay.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57His images of local characters poked gentle fun
0:31:57 > 0:31:59at Edinburgh high society.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06People would have been wearing their most fine, fine dresses.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09People would want to see people dressed up in their finery,
0:32:09 > 0:32:15they would want to see how the rich dressed and what they looked like,
0:32:15 > 0:32:17and certainly women arriving at that ball,
0:32:17 > 0:32:21the fashion at that time was to wear white dresses,
0:32:21 > 0:32:26so you imagine these kind of empire-line white dresses with a flowing trail...
0:32:26 > 0:32:31Turbans with ostrich feathers would have been worn,
0:32:31 > 0:32:33and these turbans would have been
0:32:33 > 0:32:36bejewelled with pearls and other jewels.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39Women would have carried a fan for modesty.
0:32:39 > 0:32:44So, very much, it's like the kind of VIP red carpet occasions of today.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51Just up here is a windowed gallery.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55Now, we think this is where people might have viewed
0:32:55 > 0:33:00those ball attendees back in 1787, so there may have been some kind of
0:33:00 > 0:33:03structure there, a kind of a scaffold or a ladder or something,
0:33:03 > 0:33:07where people could scurry up and have a look through and see
0:33:07 > 0:33:11these grand people processing up the staircase in all their finery.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25So we're now in the ballroom and this is one of the original rooms
0:33:25 > 0:33:30in the 1787 build of the Assembly Rooms here in Edinburgh.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34You can see that it's huge - it's 92 foot long,
0:33:34 > 0:33:37and that's what made it pretty unique at that time.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41A building like this didn't come cheap,
0:33:41 > 0:33:44but it certainly made an impact.
0:33:44 > 0:33:48Scottish high society, which for decades had been leaving for London,
0:33:48 > 0:33:50could finally hold its head up.
0:33:53 > 0:33:55Even if pockets were feeling the pinch.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01For that inaugural ball in 1787,
0:34:01 > 0:34:08this room was kitted out with second-hand settees and divans,
0:34:08 > 0:34:10old, worn, threadbare carpets.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13They just didn't have the money to create the beautiful fabric
0:34:13 > 0:34:16that you see here, because they'd run out of the money.
0:34:16 > 0:34:20However, look at the space that they got to dance in.
0:34:20 > 0:34:25If you were a Georgian, you had all this room to perform your dances in,
0:34:25 > 0:34:27you didn't really care about how it looked.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41Cash was eventually raised to put the finishing touches
0:34:41 > 0:34:44to the ballroom, which became a showpiece for some of
0:34:44 > 0:34:48the finest craftsmanship ever to come out of Scotland.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52Most dazzling of all were the crystal chandeliers.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59The chandeliers, we believe, do have an Edinburgh provenance.
0:34:59 > 0:35:03We think that they were made at an Edinburgh glass-maker's.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07Each chandelier contains 12,000 crystals,
0:35:07 > 0:35:15so in these three chandeliers alone, there are 36,000 cut-glass crystals.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19You can tell they're proper cut-glass crystals because
0:35:19 > 0:35:22they refract the light and you get this beautiful rainbow effect
0:35:22 > 0:35:27of colours. Originally, the chandeliers would have held candles,
0:35:27 > 0:35:31and the candle wax would have dripped down onto the people below.
0:35:31 > 0:35:33So, there were many stories of the time,
0:35:33 > 0:35:37anecdotal stories, of women having their dresses ruined
0:35:37 > 0:35:40by hot candle wax dripping down onto their bodies.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50The Assembly Rooms announced that a new Edinburgh had arrived.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54It was a capital city fit for the modern world
0:35:54 > 0:35:58and a proud partner with London in the Union.
0:35:58 > 0:36:03But not every house in the New Town was aimed at high society.
0:36:03 > 0:36:06Many streets also contained tenements where
0:36:06 > 0:36:09the slightly less well-off could afford to live.
0:36:11 > 0:36:14Today, many of the original buildings on Princes Street
0:36:14 > 0:36:17and George Street have been swept away...
0:36:19 > 0:36:23..but Queen Street still retains much of its original appearance.
0:36:26 > 0:36:29It shows just how well built the houses of the New Town were.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34This flat on Queen street has recently been bought by
0:36:34 > 0:36:36Belinda and Stephen Carswell.
0:36:38 > 0:36:40Its appearance is deceptive.
0:36:40 > 0:36:46From the outside, it looks like a tall Georgian house,
0:36:46 > 0:36:49but in fact this stair leads directly to a pair
0:36:49 > 0:36:53of double upper flats right at the top of the building.
0:36:53 > 0:36:59Belinda and Stephen are turning them into luxury holiday apartments.
0:36:59 > 0:37:04The renovation has brought them close to 200-plus years of history.
0:37:04 > 0:37:09Here in Queen Street is one of the original New Town streets,
0:37:09 > 0:37:12so it's lovely when you come inside to think, "Gosh, the history."
0:37:12 > 0:37:15Even walking up the stairs... When you come in you've got grooves
0:37:15 > 0:37:19in the stonework that obviously have been worn down on the steps
0:37:19 > 0:37:21from hundreds of people coming up and down over the years,
0:37:21 > 0:37:25and then when you come into the property it's just quite lovely
0:37:25 > 0:37:28seeing the high ceilings and just imagining how it would have been
0:37:28 > 0:37:31when they first opened the doors to the first new owners.
0:37:35 > 0:37:37The flat has been altered over time,
0:37:37 > 0:37:40but more than 200 years after it was built,
0:37:40 > 0:37:45the quality of the craftsmanship still shines through.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48A lot of the original features still in here, which is nice,
0:37:48 > 0:37:50and we're going to preserve all of those
0:37:50 > 0:37:53whilst bringing it up to date, really.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56Don't want to knock anyone off the ladder.
0:37:56 > 0:37:59So I think this would probably have been another...
0:38:00 > 0:38:01..another sitting room.
0:38:03 > 0:38:05So...
0:38:05 > 0:38:06this is quite a fancy fireplace.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13In between painting and decorating,
0:38:13 > 0:38:16Belinda's husband Stephen has started to look through the flat's
0:38:16 > 0:38:19original deeds.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22Our solicitor, when we purchased this,
0:38:22 > 0:38:25asked if we were just going to throw these things out, and I thought,
0:38:25 > 0:38:27"No, no, please give them to us."
0:38:27 > 0:38:30I've not really had much time to look though them yet,
0:38:30 > 0:38:33but I have come across this one that goes back to...
0:38:33 > 0:38:341793.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39In favour of someone called George Tate.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42"Nor all men by this present..."
0:38:42 > 0:38:44Oh, jings.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47Handwriting like my mother's - it's a little bit tricky to read.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50I'm sure it mentions in here at some point that
0:38:50 > 0:38:52we're solely responsible for the roof,
0:38:52 > 0:38:54which is a little bit unfortunate.
0:38:54 > 0:38:56It shows you how...
0:38:56 > 0:38:59how short a period we're really here, doesn't it?
0:38:59 > 0:39:01You know, you think, "Oh, got a house,
0:39:01 > 0:39:02"going to be lovely, live here."
0:39:02 > 0:39:05And then you look back and you see someone was here for five years,
0:39:05 > 0:39:09eight years, ten years, and it all just seems to fly by.
0:39:09 > 0:39:111st October 1793.
0:39:13 > 0:39:18Helping with the renovation is local joiner Stewart Saville.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22A New Town native himself, Stewart has long experience working with
0:39:22 > 0:39:25these kinds of historic properties.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29Yeah, you can get a sense of, like, what they had to do.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32In their day, when these places were getting fitted out,
0:39:32 > 0:39:35most of your stuff was all done by hand, all the fitting
0:39:35 > 0:39:39was done by hand, and they probably had
0:39:39 > 0:39:41better hand tools, better steel.
0:39:42 > 0:39:44Really? Oh, yeah.
0:39:44 > 0:39:47Oh, yeah, some of the older tools, they've got far better steel
0:39:47 > 0:39:50for your chisels and saws.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53When it comes to the saws now, they're all throwaway -
0:39:53 > 0:39:59you can't get a saw doctor to do a saw properly.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02You're doing the rip-out and you're taking off...
0:40:02 > 0:40:05lifting up boards, taking the skirting, panelling off,
0:40:05 > 0:40:07ceiling's coming down, different things.
0:40:07 > 0:40:09But when you find things...
0:40:09 > 0:40:11Like, you'll find a newspaper...
0:40:13 > 0:40:17Blah, blah, blah, and it'll give you an idea of when things were done,
0:40:17 > 0:40:20and you'll also find old bottles, like,
0:40:20 > 0:40:25I've found them twice in two different buildings - is at the top
0:40:25 > 0:40:28there's been a bottle
0:40:28 > 0:40:30that's been built into the brickwork.
0:40:33 > 0:40:34And it's obviously been...
0:40:34 > 0:40:37The stories go like, basically, the guy's got to the top
0:40:37 > 0:40:41of the building, had a drink and built the bottle into the wall.
0:40:43 > 0:40:48Flats like this and houses in the New Town's more modest backstreets
0:40:48 > 0:40:50stopped it from becoming completely exclusive.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56Tony Lewis's study of the New Town builders has thrown light
0:40:56 > 0:41:00on the more humble folk who were making it home.
0:41:00 > 0:41:03This is home of the tradesmen as opposed to home
0:41:03 > 0:41:05of the great lords and ladies.
0:41:05 > 0:41:10Smaller in scale but also a good place to be based at.
0:41:10 > 0:41:14There were many forms of New Town housing -
0:41:14 > 0:41:17this was housing that Edinburgh people knew and could afford.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21Also hidden in these minor streets of the New Town
0:41:21 > 0:41:25was where the brothels, the dark side of Edinburgh New Town
0:41:25 > 0:41:30society resided, and if you go through Edinburgh Tolbooth records
0:41:30 > 0:41:34as well for people thrown into the local jail for misdemeanours,
0:41:34 > 0:41:37you find bouts of drinking and fighting.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42One of these streets was even named after someone
0:41:42 > 0:41:46not in the royal family - the builder who had started the project
0:41:46 > 0:41:49back in Thistle Court, John Young.
0:41:49 > 0:41:50Here we are in Young Street.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54John Young had survived the process of building the New Town -
0:41:54 > 0:41:56he'd begun in Thistle Court,
0:41:56 > 0:41:58he'd ended up in a street named after himself.
0:41:58 > 0:42:02His name, his fame were secure.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05Builders weren't the only Edinburgh tradesmen getting rich
0:42:05 > 0:42:06from the New Town.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11All these houses needed to be furnished.
0:42:11 > 0:42:13Rich Scots used to buy furniture from London or Europe...
0:42:16 > 0:42:20..but now Edinburgh's own cabinet-makers were stepping up
0:42:20 > 0:42:24and ushering in a golden age of Scottish furniture.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27John Dixon has been dealing in Georgian furniture
0:42:27 > 0:42:29for over 30 years.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32Many of the thousands of pieces that were made for the New Town
0:42:32 > 0:42:36have ended up here in his warehouse in Leith.
0:42:36 > 0:42:38The cabinet-makers do everything themselves by hand.
0:42:38 > 0:42:41Some of them learned their skills at Whytock and Reid,
0:42:41 > 0:42:43a legendary Edinburgh cabinet-maker's.
0:42:43 > 0:42:48We are repairing he furniture that was made 200 years ago,
0:42:48 > 0:42:50and most of it - it was so well made at the time -
0:42:50 > 0:42:53we're basically just restoring it.
0:42:53 > 0:42:55We've thousands of knobs.
0:42:55 > 0:42:59Sort of the earliest knobs you get on Scottish furniture
0:42:59 > 0:43:01is probably late George III.
0:43:05 > 0:43:09So this would've been a typical New Town piece of furniture.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12This is a tea table and the New Town would have been full of that stuff.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15This one here is probably 1790.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18This is a table just for having tea.
0:43:18 > 0:43:19This is not your dining table.
0:43:19 > 0:43:24You'd need to have a space in your house with room for this table,
0:43:24 > 0:43:27so it probably meant you had a drawing room or a separate room
0:43:27 > 0:43:32other than living in a two- or three-bedroom tenement.
0:43:32 > 0:43:34Wonder how may villains sat at that table.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40Among John's passions is the work of one of Edinburgh's finest
0:43:40 > 0:43:43Georgian cabinet-makers, William Trotter.
0:43:43 > 0:43:45Like the builder John Young,
0:43:45 > 0:43:49Trotter came from a relatively humble background.
0:43:49 > 0:43:52He didn't even sign his furniture.
0:43:52 > 0:43:56But he rose to become the most sought-after craftsman in the country.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59This is by William Trotter of Edinburgh,
0:43:59 > 0:44:04And even though William Trotter didn't stamp any furniture,
0:44:04 > 0:44:07there's the age of the piece and there's characteristics on it
0:44:07 > 0:44:09that are by William Trotter and no-one else.
0:44:09 > 0:44:13If you see this panel section, which recurs three times,
0:44:13 > 0:44:17this sunk beading, which is quite tricky and quite expensive to make,
0:44:17 > 0:44:21and it dates from about 1815 to 1820.
0:44:21 > 0:44:26He was the best known and most productive cabinet-maker in Scotland.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30When he got control of the Edinburgh or the Scottish market,
0:44:30 > 0:44:32I mean, he was around for 50 years.
0:44:32 > 0:44:36I'd say when the New Town started developing, his business, I mean,
0:44:36 > 0:44:37he must have loved it.
0:44:37 > 0:44:39You've got maybe a mile and a half of streets packed
0:44:39 > 0:44:41with these large houses
0:44:41 > 0:44:45and these people must have been crying out for the fashionable
0:44:45 > 0:44:46Edinburgh furniture of the day.
0:44:48 > 0:44:52Young William Trotter also had an unexpected stroke of luck
0:44:52 > 0:44:56when one of his rival cabinet-makers was unmasked as Edinburgh's
0:44:56 > 0:44:59most notorious villain.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03His business took off when Deacon Brodie was executed because,
0:45:03 > 0:45:07previous to that, Deacon Brodie was the top gun of the cabinet-makers
0:45:07 > 0:45:12in Scotland, and I think when his demise occurred on the Royal Mile,
0:45:12 > 0:45:15Trotter's business accelerated.
0:45:15 > 0:45:17Actually, I've got a lovely Trotter tea caddy here.
0:45:17 > 0:45:19Have a look at this.
0:45:19 > 0:45:20This is a cracker.
0:45:24 > 0:45:26This is very unusual and rare.
0:45:26 > 0:45:32Regency, rosewood and brass-inlaid teapoy,
0:45:32 > 0:45:37or basically a tea caddy on legs, but whoever had this
0:45:37 > 0:45:40had pretty sophisticated taste.
0:45:40 > 0:45:43Inside they had three different types of tea,
0:45:43 > 0:45:45and that's why they have separate canisters.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48In here there would have been two glass mixing bowls -
0:45:48 > 0:45:51they're now missing. So you would've got some green tea, black tea,
0:45:51 > 0:45:54and you would have blended your own tea.
0:45:54 > 0:45:56And here...
0:45:56 > 0:46:00they must have had something where they were mixing the teas,
0:46:00 > 0:46:03but this is to gather the leaves that were too big.
0:46:03 > 0:46:05But this is removable...
0:46:06 > 0:46:10..and this is what I've never seen - there's a small pin here and,
0:46:10 > 0:46:12when you remove the pin,
0:46:12 > 0:46:13this drawer comes out,
0:46:13 > 0:46:17and this was for gathering the tea that had fallen through this filter.
0:46:18 > 0:46:20And that's how expensive tea was.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27By the 1790s, the New Town had plenty of households
0:46:27 > 0:46:29who could afford a cup of tea,
0:46:29 > 0:46:31and as the project neared completion,
0:46:31 > 0:46:35the scene was set for its grand climax.
0:46:35 > 0:46:38The City Council wanted a real show-stopper,
0:46:38 > 0:46:42so they stepped in and commissioned Scotland's greatest architect,
0:46:42 > 0:46:45Robert Adam himself, to design one.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49The result was a masterpiece that really did embody
0:46:49 > 0:46:51the Scottish Enlightenment in stone -
0:46:51 > 0:46:54Charlotte Square.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58Today, number 6 is home to Scotland's First Minister.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01Next-door, number 7 has been restored
0:47:01 > 0:47:03by the National Trust for Scotland
0:47:03 > 0:47:06to show how the original residents would have lived.
0:47:06 > 0:47:12The lobbies were where hats and coats were left, as today,
0:47:12 > 0:47:15so there was always a hatstand,
0:47:15 > 0:47:19and then you're led straight through onto the staircase,
0:47:19 > 0:47:22which is part of this processional route to the drawing room.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31The final piece of the New Town jigsaw was Charlotte Square,
0:47:31 > 0:47:36and they asked Robert Adam to design it all of a piece as something
0:47:36 > 0:47:38the city could be really proud of,
0:47:38 > 0:47:43and I regard it as one of the finest pieces of urban planning in Europe.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46It was a very, very desirable address.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52This house was originally built not for a judge or a wealthy merchant,
0:47:52 > 0:47:54but for a highland chief -
0:47:54 > 0:47:56John Lamont of the Clan Lamont from Argyll.
0:47:59 > 0:48:01Like many wealthy Scots,
0:48:01 > 0:48:06he was drawn to the new-look capital and its glittering high society.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09I think you can assume that these were the grandest houses
0:48:09 > 0:48:14that the town had to offer. Social standards were being set by
0:48:14 > 0:48:19these houses and people very much came into Edinburgh in the winter
0:48:19 > 0:48:22when the courts were sitting, when the children could go to schools,
0:48:22 > 0:48:26and when the Assembly Rooms were meeting in George Street.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31To entertain his neighbours in style,
0:48:31 > 0:48:34Lamont had to fit out his new house with the best of everything.
0:48:36 > 0:48:39At its heart was the showpiece interior - the drawing room.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44We know from the bills of fitting houses up
0:48:44 > 0:48:48that half the total expenditure on furniture
0:48:48 > 0:48:50would go in a drawing room.
0:48:50 > 0:48:54As you can see, the room is extremely grand, it's very classical
0:48:54 > 0:48:58with the symmetrical arrangement around the fireplace.
0:48:58 > 0:49:03It's very well lit with three very large windows, by Old Town standards,
0:49:03 > 0:49:08looking down onto the private public gardens of the square.
0:49:08 > 0:49:13It's designed to cope with a large number of people, and small dances
0:49:13 > 0:49:17might have been held in these rooms after evening parties.
0:49:20 > 0:49:24All this luxury points to a social change that was sweeping Edinburgh
0:49:24 > 0:49:26and the rest of Scotland...
0:49:27 > 0:49:28Class.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34Unlike the Old Town, New Town folk didn't mix much
0:49:34 > 0:49:36with the lower orders.
0:49:36 > 0:49:38The houses themselves reflect this.
0:49:39 > 0:49:45In order to get into a Georgian house, what you first have to do
0:49:45 > 0:49:48is negotiate a row of railings with spiked tops,
0:49:48 > 0:49:52and on the other side there is a large pit or moat.
0:49:52 > 0:49:55How do you get across this moat and through these railings?
0:49:55 > 0:49:58And there's two ways - are you a tradesman?
0:49:58 > 0:50:01In which case you carry your heavy load down the very small
0:50:01 > 0:50:04winding staircase. Or are you a social visitor?
0:50:04 > 0:50:06In which case you're allowed in the front door.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09And the ladies looked down from the drawing room on the first floor,
0:50:09 > 0:50:12properly defended from the oiks milling around
0:50:12 > 0:50:14on the pavement below.
0:50:16 > 0:50:18It was social cleansing, wasn't it?
0:50:18 > 0:50:23If we build a place that only "nice people" can afford to go into,
0:50:23 > 0:50:26then we remove all the problems.
0:50:26 > 0:50:31But actually the problem of poverty, the problem of disease,
0:50:31 > 0:50:33the problem of unemployment just stay
0:50:33 > 0:50:37but you just don't have it on your front doorstep.
0:50:37 > 0:50:39For folk who could remember the Old Town,
0:50:39 > 0:50:44this New Town lifestyle meant progress, but as Edinburgh changed,
0:50:44 > 0:50:48one of the city's unique qualities was in danger of being lost.
0:50:48 > 0:50:51There's a kind of curious sense, perhaps,
0:50:51 > 0:50:55that the formalisation of Enlightenment culture,
0:50:55 > 0:51:00or the turning of it literally into form in the New Town,
0:51:00 > 0:51:01is what kills it off,
0:51:01 > 0:51:05and that actually it's the inconvenient bumping against
0:51:05 > 0:51:09each other of the Old Town that makes it happen.
0:51:10 > 0:51:13But for Clan Chief Lamont and his friends,
0:51:13 > 0:51:17New Town living represented civilisation,
0:51:17 > 0:51:19sophistication and modernity.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24His parties would have been run along appropriately formal lines
0:51:24 > 0:51:28in keeping with the fashion in any other European capital.
0:51:30 > 0:51:32If you were a guest at an evening party,
0:51:32 > 0:51:36you'd have been taken up by the servants to the drawing room
0:51:36 > 0:51:38where you'd have met your hostess,
0:51:38 > 0:51:42then once all the guests were arrived they would have come down
0:51:42 > 0:51:46in rather a formal procession to this dining room.
0:51:46 > 0:51:50Dinner would've been brought up by the staff from the kitchen below,
0:51:50 > 0:51:54but all sorts of efforts were made to keep things hot,
0:51:54 > 0:51:56and here we've got a plate-warmer.
0:51:56 > 0:52:01This would have kept the plates hot whilst the family came down
0:52:01 > 0:52:06with their guests and the dinner was ready to be served.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10And like the formal manners and hierarchy of the house,
0:52:10 > 0:52:14the dinner was laid in a very formal arrangement.
0:52:14 > 0:52:18The husband and wife would sit at the end of the tables
0:52:18 > 0:52:21and help in serving their guests.
0:52:21 > 0:52:26The husband or the host would normally carve the joint for dinner
0:52:26 > 0:52:29in front of the guests and it was a great kind of social skill
0:52:29 > 0:52:34to be able to do that very elegantly without making a mess.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49With the completion of Charlotte Square in 1820,
0:52:49 > 0:52:50the New Town was finished.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57Edinburgh had been transformed,
0:52:57 > 0:52:59and the plan had worked -
0:52:59 > 0:53:02Scotland's commitment to the Union was stronger than ever,
0:53:02 > 0:53:04and Edinburgh was prosperous and proud.
0:53:06 > 0:53:10The city's prestige was confirmed when, in 1822,
0:53:10 > 0:53:12King George IV came to see
0:53:12 > 0:53:15the loyal capital of North Britain for himself.
0:53:18 > 0:53:20James Craig didn't live to see this happen.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25After a patchy career as an architect, he died,
0:53:25 > 0:53:27in debt, in 1795.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35But if Craig didn't get to share in much of the New Town's glory,
0:53:35 > 0:53:38his legacy lived on spectacularly.
0:53:40 > 0:53:42His first New Town was joined by a second,
0:53:42 > 0:53:45then a third as Edinburgh continued to expand.
0:53:48 > 0:53:50And, as in Charlotte Square,
0:53:50 > 0:53:54planning restrictions were enforced to create an elegant, uniform style.
0:53:54 > 0:53:58Together, these streets now form the largest concentration
0:53:58 > 0:54:03of Georgian architecture anywhere in the world.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06Their beauty continues to inspire visitors from all corners
0:54:06 > 0:54:11of the globe, as well as the people who live there today.
0:54:11 > 0:54:14Lucy Jones is an artist who lives and works in the New Town.
0:54:16 > 0:54:18When I was originally painting a few years ago,
0:54:18 > 0:54:21I didn't paint buildings at all and they didn't interest me at all,
0:54:21 > 0:54:23but since moving here, I just had to paint it.
0:54:23 > 0:54:27I don't know. And when you're out there on a sunny day
0:54:27 > 0:54:30and the blue sky is behind all those grey, grey buildings
0:54:30 > 0:54:34and you'll have a beautiful curve and the windows
0:54:34 > 0:54:36with the curved tops with the glass,
0:54:36 > 0:54:40cos it might be kind of old glass and it's slightly wonky,
0:54:40 > 0:54:43and then the steps will be worn in the centre,
0:54:43 > 0:54:45so they'll be slightly curved
0:54:45 > 0:54:47in the middle of the steps, the stone...
0:54:47 > 0:54:50there's just something beautiful about it. Yes, there is.
0:54:50 > 0:54:52And the majesticness of it all.
0:54:52 > 0:54:55Lucy is working on a picture of one of the later New Town's
0:54:55 > 0:54:58grandest crescents - Royal Circus.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01There's a lovely gate just here in these gardens that...
0:55:01 > 0:55:05I've got some photographs, but the detail isn't good enough,
0:55:05 > 0:55:07I don't think, to do the picture from,
0:55:07 > 0:55:09so I'd like to go back there today
0:55:09 > 0:55:11to get the detail for this gateway here.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22There's three different styles just going up the hill there,
0:55:22 > 0:55:23and that's what I love as well,
0:55:23 > 0:55:27that the more you look, the more different things you see.
0:55:27 > 0:55:31This spot that I've drawn is just round the other side of the crescent,
0:55:31 > 0:55:32but the view from here...
0:55:32 > 0:55:36I've drawn this street before and it's a beautiful curve
0:55:36 > 0:55:40with this sort of crazy big building in the front sort of curving away,
0:55:40 > 0:55:43around and away from you, which is really, really nice.
0:55:45 > 0:55:49I took the photos back in, I think, February
0:55:49 > 0:55:51when there wasn't any greenery around,
0:55:51 > 0:55:53so I could see through these bushes here.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56I'm not so sure now what I'll put in the foreground,
0:55:56 > 0:55:59but I would like to get the detail of that lovely gateway,
0:55:59 > 0:56:01the arch over the gateway there.
0:56:03 > 0:56:04Brilliant.
0:56:13 > 0:56:15I've left the foreground nice and simple.
0:56:15 > 0:56:17I'm quite abstract but I think it's really worked.
0:56:17 > 0:56:20I've got sort of the sweep of the fence as it comes round
0:56:20 > 0:56:22and the curve of the crescents,
0:56:22 > 0:56:25I've put that in because I love the curve of the crescents.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28Recently I have been much more inspired,
0:56:28 > 0:56:30as opposed to January when it was grey and horrible,
0:56:30 > 0:56:33and the sun's come out the last month or so,
0:56:33 > 0:56:36and I have felt like, "Yes, this is what I love doing."
0:56:38 > 0:56:41As Edinburgh and Scotland look to the future,
0:56:41 > 0:56:46the New Town is a reminder of a visionary moment in Scottish history
0:56:46 > 0:56:51when the country was shaking off its troubled past and making itself new.
0:56:52 > 0:56:55But does it have anything to teach us today?
0:56:56 > 0:57:01What it shows is what a city government
0:57:01 > 0:57:03with a certain measure
0:57:03 > 0:57:08of will and the capability of doing so can create.
0:57:12 > 0:57:14As the world becomes more urbanised,
0:57:14 > 0:57:19it's an absolutely viable model for high-density, low-rise,
0:57:19 > 0:57:22high-amenity great places to live.
0:57:23 > 0:57:26The New Town and the Scottish Enlightenment
0:57:26 > 0:57:28was an explosion of creativity
0:57:28 > 0:57:31the likes of which Scotland had never seen.
0:57:32 > 0:57:35And it lives on.
0:57:35 > 0:57:39Today, Edinburgh is home to the world's biggest arts festival,
0:57:39 > 0:57:44and a new wave of hi-tech innovation is again making the city buzz.
0:57:44 > 0:57:48Perhaps it's time for the next Scottish Enlightenment.
0:57:48 > 0:57:50I think the future for Edinburgh is bright,
0:57:50 > 0:57:54but it's also going to be a busy and possibly, again,
0:57:54 > 0:57:57overcrowded place to live in.
0:57:57 > 0:58:01There's a new Enlightenment of these tech companies that are growing fast
0:58:01 > 0:58:03in Edinburgh, incredible start-ups and, you know,
0:58:03 > 0:58:07little companies that are almost invisible one year are then
0:58:07 > 0:58:10everywhere the next. They're happening because there are
0:58:10 > 0:58:14lots of creative people in the city able to do these things.
0:58:46 > 0:58:48SHE SIGHS DEEPLY
0:58:52 > 0:58:54The shooting was fully justified.
0:58:57 > 0:58:59So he's the Belfast strangler?
0:59:00 > 0:59:02DOCTOR SHOUTS INSTRUCTIONS
0:59:04 > 0:59:06'I want him to live,
0:59:06 > 0:59:09'so that he can spend the rest of his life in prison.'