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Plans of the New Town of Edinburgh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

M. K. Meade
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Extract

The Edinburgh Town Council minutes for 6 June 1767 record that: ‘On Wednesday last the Magistrates of Edinburgh conferred on Mr James Craig, Architect, a gold medal with the freedom of the city in a silver box, as a reward of his merit for having designed the best plan of the New Town.’

Despite the importance of this plan (Fig. 33a) unfortunately little is known of its architect’s background. Born c. 1740, James Craig’s father was an Edinburgh merchant, his mother a sister of the poet James Thomson, best remembered as the author of Rule Britannia and The Seasons. No record survives of his early education and though he is supposed to have received his architectural training under Sir Robert Taylor, this would appear to be a confusion with a namesake. An obscure young man then, the New Town Competition of 1766–67, was to bring him sudden fame.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 14 , 1971 , pp. 40 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1971

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References

Mears, F. C. & Russell, J., ‘The New Town of Edinburgh’, Book of the Old Edinburgh Club xxii & xxiii (Edinburgh 1939–41)Google Scholar
Cowan, W., The Maps of Edinburgh 1544–1929 (Edinburgh 1932)Google Scholar
Simpson, D., Edinburgh Displayed (Edinburgh 1962)Google Scholar
Youngson, A. J., The Making of Classical Edinburgh (Edinburgh 1966)Google Scholar