Princes Street - History

History

Princes Street was originally to have been called St Giles Street after the patron saint of Edinburgh. However, King George III rejected the name, St Giles also being the patron saint of lepers and having association with an edge-of-city slum area of London.The street is named after King George's two eldest sons, the Prince George, Duke of Rothesay (later King George IV) and the Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany.

It was laid out according to formal plans for Edinburgh's New Town, now known as the First New Town. These were devised by the architect James Craig and building began around 1770. Princes Street represented a critical part of the plan, being the outer edge, facing Edinburgh Castle and the original city:"Edinburgh Old Town". Originally all buildings had the same format: set back from the street with stairs down to a basement and stairs up to the ground floor with two storeys and an attic above. Of this original format only one such property remains in its original form. Through the 19th century most buildings were redeveloped at a larger scale and the street evolved from residential to mainly retail uses. In the 1960s a "Princes Street Plan" was proposed, removing all buildings and replacing them with a pro-forma pattern building with first level walkway, theoretically doubling the shopping frontage. The plan was partially put into operation, resulting in a very mixed character to the street. Ironically, two of the new buildings, executed in a brutalist style, are now listed buildings.

During the construction of the New Town, the polluted waters of the Nor Loch were drained, and the area was converted into private gardens called Princes Street Gardens. This was taken over by the Edinburgh Council in the late 19th century, by which time most of the street was commercial and there was no great need for private residential gardens. The width of Princes Street was greatly increased soon after, onto what was the northern edge of the gardens. Due to the much lower position of the gardens this led to the creation of the steep embankment on the north side, still visible today. The gardens are one of the many green spaces in the heart of Edinburgh.