The naming of 

“The New Town”

In 1759 King George III had a new town built as an extension of Edinburgh City, as the over population of the old town streets had become unliveable. A bridge was built as an access to where the new town would be built (North Bridge). Where the area of the Nor Loch once covered,

Waverley Rail Station and Princes Street Gardens are now.

When the plans for the new town were agreed

the King named the streets with the main street after himself (George Street).

The other streets of the new town were named after as follows:

Queen Street, after his wife the Queen:

St. Giles Street after the city’s patron saint, St. Giles

St. Andrews Square after

the patron saint of Scotland

and

George Square after

the patron saint of England.

The smaller street between George Street and Queen Street

is named Thistle Street after 

(Scotland’s national emblem)

Street Between George Street and St. Giles Street

is named Rose Street after

(England’s national emblem).

King George, after consideration, rejected the name St. Giles Street

as St Giles being the patron saint of lepers

and also the name of a slum area on the edge of the City of London.

It was renamed Princes Street after his sons, the three Princes.

The name of St. George Square was also changed to Charlotte Square after his wife Charlotte the Queen

as there was already a George Square just outside the old town.

Thistle Street was split into three separate street names, from the west end.

It became Young Street then Hill Street after the architects who built the new town

with the final part remaining Thistle Street now half the length of Rose Street.

The three streets running across the main street completing the new town area,

Castle Street named for the view of the castle, Frederick Street after the king’s father Frederick

and Hanover Street was after the Royal house of Hanover.

The main access to the new town was by the North Bridge.

The Nor Loch was drained and the debris from the excavations of the new town

were piled up in the middle of the now dry bed of the loch and formed the mound

the only other access from the old town to the new town.

The gardens were then formed on both sides of the mound in the dry bed

where the loch had been at the foot of Edinburgh Castle, running the length of Princes Street.

The first buildings in the New Town to be built were in Rose Court, at the east end of Thistle Street in 1767,

now called Thistle Court, this building can still be seen today.