Old Town - Edinburgh - page 73

Understand
Old Town History
Before the founding of the New Town in the 18th century, old Edinburgh was an overcrowded and
unsanitary hive of humanity. Constrained between the boggy ground of the Nor' Loch (now
drained and occupied by Princes Street Gardens) to the north and the city walls to the south and
east, the only way for the town to expand was upwards.
Old Town Tenements
The five- to eight-storey tenements that were raised along the Royal Mile in the 16th and 17th cen-
turies were the skyscrapers of their day, remarked upon with wonder by visiting writers such as
Daniel Defoe. All classes of society, from beggars to magistrates, lived cheek by jowl in these urb-
an ants' nests, the wealthy occupying the middle floors - high enough to be above the noise and
stink of the streets, but not so high that climbing the stairs would be too tiring - while the poor
squeezed into attics, basements, cellars and vaults.
Royal Mile
The Royal Mile, Edinburgh's oldest street, connects the castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. It is
split into four named sections: Castlehill, the Lawnmarket, the High St and the Canongate.
A corruption of 'Landmarket', Lawnmarket takes its name from a large cloth market (selling
goods from the land outside the city) that flourished here until the 18th century; this was the
poshest part of the Old Town, where many distinguished citizens made their homes.
High Street , which stretches from George IV Bridge down to St Mary's St, is the heart and soul
of the Old Town, home to the city's main church, the law courts, the city chambers and - until
1707 - the Scottish parliament. It ends at St Mary St, where the Old Town's eastern gate, the Neth-
erbow Port (part of the Flodden Wall), once stood. Though it no longer exists, its former outline is
marked by brass strips set in the road.
Canongate - the section between the Netherbow and Holyrood - takes its name from the
Augustinian canons (monks) of Holyrood Abbey. From the 16th century it was home to aristocrats
who wanted to live near the Palace of Holyroodhouse.