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Why Did James Craig Build A New Town?

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Introduction
James Craig won a competition held by Edinburgh’s town council for the design of a new residential area north of the Nor’ Loch in 1766 . New Town’s conception coincided with the Scottish Enlightenment period, thus there were elements in James Craig’s plans that reflected this ideology. This paper, however, will contend that while the influential extent of Enlightenment ideas did not cover the initial reasons for the town’s creation, the planning aspect of New Town’s creation and its residents whom created its culture and helped it to thrive, did. It will focus on the factors that contributed to the creation of a new town, the arrangement and purposes of the roads and buildings proposed by James Craig’s plans, and how Edinburgh’s reputation as the ‘Athens of the North’ translated into the New Town through its inhabitants.

Reasons for New Town’s Construction …show more content…

The Lord Gilbert Elliot Minto maintained that Edinburgh’s inhabitants wanted more space, “… free air, light, clean linefs, and every other comfortable accommodation” as the town was dirty and cramped with one principal street huddled with many markets, and had many families forced to live within a single building due to the lack of space, making the burgh the most crowded in Europe . Therefore, to tackle the overcrowding issue, Defoe suggested that a long-term solution would be to expand the city by filling in the Nor’ Loch and building upon the plain beyond it . These ideas, in addition to the 1603 Union of the Crowns and 1707 Act of Union, were shared by the Lord Provost George Drummond whom made propositions in 1752 to expand and beautify Edinburgh by building to the north and south, an act which was passed by parliament a year later

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