The idea of a New Town was first suggested in the late 17th century when the Duke of Albany and York (later King James VII and II), when resident Royal Commissioner at Holyrood Palace, encouraged the idea of having an extended regality to the north of the city and a North Bridge.

[3] The Age of Enlightenment had arrived in Edinburgh, and the outdated city fabric did not suit the professional and merchant classes who lived there.

Crossing points were built to access the new land; the North Bridge in 1772, and the Earthen Mound, which began as a tip for material excavated during construction of the New Town.

It was won by 26-year-old James Craig, who, following the natural contours of the land, proposed a simple axial grid, with a principal thoroughfare along the ridge linking two garden squares.

[5] This map shows a diagonal layout with a central square reflecting a new era of civic Hanoverian British patriotism by echoing the design of the Union Flag.

He decided to build a town mansion here and commissioned a design from Sir William Chambers.

The forecourt of the building, with the equestrian monument to John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun, occupies the proposed church site.

The lack of a visual termination at the end of this street was remedied in 1823 with William Burn's monument to Henry Dundas.

In 1885 an unbuilt section of Queen Street (an open garden until that time), north of St Andrew Square, provided the site for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

The New Town was envisaged as a mainly residential suburb with a number of professional offices of domestic layout.

Many of the residents of the New Town were wealthy Scottish people (such as James Lindsay, 24th Earl of Crawford and Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville) who were financially involved in slavery in the American colonies, either through involvement in slave-trading or the ownership of slave plantations.

Jamaican-born historian Sir Geoff Palmer stated that "Our glorious New Town, seen by many as the physical embodiment of the Scottish Enlightenment, was, sadly, partly funded by the enormous profits derived from the enslavement of Africans.

Initial designs by William Sibbald followed the original grid orientation of Craig’s First New Town, with entire streets being built as one construction.

[9] The painter Henry Raeburn bought the Deanhough estate in the northwest of the New Town and started development in 1813 with Ann Street named after his wife.

[9] In 1822, the Earl of Moray had plans drawn up by James Gillespie Graham to develop his Drumsheugh estate, between Charlotte Square and the Water of Leith.

It remains one of the city's most affluent areas and of the most exclusive set of addresses[11] Gillespie Graham continued the Westward expansion of the New Town here into the estate of Lord Alva, forming the West End Village.

[12] In order to extend the New Town eastwards, the Lord Provost, Sir John Marjoribanks, succeeded in getting the elegant Regent Bridge built.

The Lord Provost made an agreement with the main landowners in 1811, some initial surveying was done and there was a competition for architectural plans for the development that on 1 January 1813, the results of which were inconclusive.

On the south side of Calton Hill various monuments were erected as well as the Royal High School, designed in Greek revival style by Thomas Hamilton.

This mainly tenemental area, reported as having a population of 3,763, was demolished largely on the basis of being slums with only 61 of 1,100 dwellings being considered fit for habitation.

[20] The New Town is home to the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Academy Building, both designed by Playfair and located next to each other on The Mound.

The Cockburn Association (Edinburgh Civic Trust) is prominent in campaigning to preserve the architectural integrity of the New Town.

Princes Street is home to many chain shops, formerly including Jenners department store, an Edinburgh institution.

George Street, once the financial centre, now has numerous modern bars, many occupying former banking halls, while Multrees Walk on St. Andrew Square is home to Harvey Nichols and other designer shops.

Often considered an unwelcome addition to New Town architecture, it included a large branch of John Lewis.