Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cross Princes Street to the statue of Guthrie and turn right (west), continuing to:
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St. John's & St. Cuthbert's Churches
Episcopalians are Scottish (and American) Anglicans, and at the end of West
Princes Street Gardens is St. John's Church, a Gothic house of Episcopal wor-
ship completed in 1818. Behind it is St. Cuthbert's Parish Church, which you
enter from Lothian Road. Here, at the base of Castle Rock, a medieval church
was apparently established in the 12th century. This one, dating to the 1890s,
was at least the third to be constructed on the site. The churchyard offers
plenty of handsome monuments and has the graves of painter Alexander Nas-
myth and writer (as well as noted opium eater) Thomas De Quincey. In St.
Cuthbert's vestibule is a memorial to John Napier of Merchiston, who invented
logarithms. During the day, you can walk via a rear gate into West Princes
Street Gardens.
But our stroll returns to Princes Street, crossing it, turning left (west), going a short
distance, and then turning right (north) on Hope Street to:
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Charlotte Square
This was the final piece of the original New Town development designed by the
preeminent Georgian-era architect Robert Adam in 1791 just before his death.
A circular park was expanded into an octagon in 1873, with a statue of Prince
Albert added. On the west side, with the aforementioned green copper dome,
is West Register House, which was originally built as St. George's Church in
1814. It is worth detouring behind the building to see the charming and
unlikely half-timber, red-roofed house on Randolph Place by architect T. Dun-
can Rhind. On the north side of Charlotte Square is Bute House, the official
residence of the Scottish First Minister, and the National Trust tourist attrac-
tion, Georgian House (p. 97).
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From the northeast corner of the square, go north one short block to North Charlotte
Street, turning right at Albyn Place, which then quickly becomes:
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Queen Street
This northernmost street of the original New Town has the greatest amount of
original buildings. Like Princes Street, town houses were built on only one side
of what is today a very busy boulevard, with the private Queen Street Gardens
running the length of the opposite side. At the eastern end is the Scottish
National Portrait Gallery, in a smart red sandstone palace designed by R. Row-
and Anderson in the 1880s. Nearby, north of the park on Heriot Row, Robert
Louis Stevenson lived as a young man.
Turn left (north) on Wemyss Place, and continue on down the hill using Gloucester
Lane and Gloucester Street to Bakers Place and:
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Stockbridge
Stockbridge, a charming village within the city along a bend in the Water of
Leith, was something of a hippie enclave in the 1960s and 1970s. But today's
property prices ensure that it is primarily home to the well-heeled. Its name
comes from the Stock Bridge, which crosses the Water of Leith. Across it,
Deanhaugh Street serves as the local main street. St. Stephen Street has a
variety of places to shop and eat.
