Edinburgh’s New Town - A Weekend with Sophistication

Much as Edinburgh is loved for its loud festivals, brash tourism and the veritable sea of tartan that flows forth from the castle ramparts, there’s a more sophisticated side to Scotland’s capital that few visitors take time to see.

Edinburgh, after all, has been a city of merchants and lawyers, bankers and judiciary for centuries. The world’s sixth biggest banking group was created here, and investment management is in the billions. This is one wealthy city.

So just a short cab ride away from the hubbub of the Castle, there’s an Edinburgh that’s rich, elegant and very cool. It officially starts at Princes Street and is called The New Town, where wide, cobblestoned avenues and crescents lined by perfectly proportioned Georgian terraces make for an altogether different weekend experience, no matter what the time of year.

Getting here is easy, by train from London is 4 hours 20 minutes (see main weekend city guide) or the airport is twenty minutes away, barring traffic jams. In addition to the national car hire chains, local firms with reasonable rates include GoGeta who specialize in BMW and Mini hire and will collect/deliver with ease.

OK. WE’RE HERE.

A walk through the New Town, day or night, winter or summer, is a peaceful moment in time. Cars purr along the cobbles, boulevards remain quiet, and glimpses through leaded windows afford insights into private, refined lives.
This area north of Princes Street was built specifically for the wealthy to escape the overcrowded Old Town and has housed Edinburgh’s elite ever since. The original 18th Century grid design, by James Craig, has been supplemented over the years – by Robert Adam among others – but the character has remained uniform, one reason why this is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Prosperity combined with cultural enlightenment produced the New Town, and the architects of the day were at the forefront of interpreting new European standards of civilized urban living, using classical ideas and ornamentation to great effect. It’s the biggest single Georgian Architecture location in the world.

The parks, squares, tree-lined avenues and sense of space are beguiling, romantic, and civilized, preserving a perfect living environment that’s as refreshingly modern and sophisticated now as it was 200 years ago. 
There are no crowds. Ever.

STAY WHERE?

A small group of four hotels has allowed the visitor to enter the New Town’s doors and embrace elegant Georgian living. The Bonham and The Howard are described here and here but the original, Channings, is constructed from four terraced town houses linked together to create one of Edinburgh’s best small hotels. A return clientele prove they’re getting something right.

Once the home of Sir Ernest Shackleton, the Polar Explorer, the top floor suites are themed with scenes from his exploits, but taste and elegance prevail. Soft furnishings and a mixture of period furniture are designed to make this a haven for relaxation rather than the rigours of exploration.

Along the top floor, the “Shackleton Suites” have extra large bathrooms with wet rooms and free standing cast iron baths, warm underfoot, with views over the city towards Fettes College (Tony Blair’s school) and beyond.

The staff are charming, friendly and helpful, just as you’d expect in a perfectly run four star operation.

The fourth hotel in the group is an altogether different proposition but just as elegant. The Edinburgh Residences occupy a large slice of Rothesay Terrace, exuding good taste and a friendly welcome but few hotel facilities. Part timeshare, part apartment, this too is an amalgamation of adjacent houses brought together with taste and aplomb. Suite 21 has a large, well proportioned reception room and adjoining double bedroom with two bathrooms and all mod cons – albeit decorated in tasteful Georgian colours and fabrics – which overlooks a large chunk of New Town architecture, parkland, and the Leith River down below. A perfect view as the sun sinks in the west.

One hotel facility on offer is a kind of grand in-room dining – room service it ain’t – where the day’s menu orders are taken by phone and delivered promptly. Steaks, roasts, fresh fish and salads as well as starters and desserts are whisked in and out, piping hot and delicious. 

It’s restful, quiet, and run by an expert, well-trained, committed staff, who’ve stayed the course with the group for years. And it shows.

REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL, 1, 2, 3…

(1)    Courtesy of the National Trust, you don’t have to imagine what life might have been like here in the 1790’s as they’ve opened up The Georgian House at 7 Charlotte Square, one of the two main squares which bookended George Street, originally the New Town’s main thoroughfare before Princes Street took over. The house isn’t large but beautifully restored and maintained.

(2)    A stroll along George Street, which once housed the city’s banks and financial institutions, reveals a good many buildings rejuvenated and repurposed. The Assembly Rooms are central to The Edinburgh Fringe; you’ll find fashion shops aplenty, plus bars and nightclubs. The most spectacular conversion is The Dome, a former main bank branch with a circular domed banking hall perfectly preserved for afternoon tea, lunch or just drinks. Opposite is the tiny, circular St Andrews Church, which is well worth a look inside.

(3)    Retail therapy in the New Town is an active sport and after reaching Harvey Nicks and Louis Vuitton in St Andrews Square, walk back along George Street then drop down to Thistle Street, where tiny antique shops are nestled beside boutiques and bars. Back along where you started, the little streets William and Stafford at the West End of Princes Street are good too.

LET’S DO LUNCH

Cheap

It may be completely characterless, but the rooftop café in John Lewis department store (St James Centre) is cheap, wholesome, and contains one of the best kept secrets of Edinburgh – spectacular rooftop views over the city.

Not so cheap

An altogether more healthy option can be found at Hendersons, a vegetarian institution in Hanover Street which has been going so long it’s routinely ignored. The salad bar (£12 for two) is now joined by a wine bar and small bistro, both of which are excellent.

Not so cheap but worthwhile

Fashionable foodies who want a view with their lunch have two excellent New Town choices: the Forth Floor atop Harvey Nicks, where on a summer’s day the windows on the terrace are thrown open for lunch al fresco high over the city and Oloroso on Castle Street, whose views across to the Castle are spectacular. (A good Old Town view is from The Tower atop the Scottish Museum or – best without a view - the excellent Witchery beside the Castle).

WHAT’S YOURS?

Find Cumberland Street and you’ll see the Cumberland Bar, a fine old-looking pub with half wood-panelled walls, a great selection of beers and whiskies plus a rare thing in Central Edinburgh, a very pleasant garden outside. Very New Town.

The Café Royal in West Register Street isn’t just a formal oyster bar and restaurant, the adjoining hostelry has been the boozer-du-jour for lawyers, rugby types and all manner of Edinburghers over a very, very long time. The circular bar is a hubbub of activity, overlooked by half a dozen paintings reproduced in tile form depicting great inventors. Real Edinburgh, real beer and whisky galore. (behind a Burger King on Princes Street!)

Younger cocktail drinkers should head for George Street where among others the Candy Bar, Bar 38 and the Opal Lounge will satisfy their hedonistic needs.

DINNER IS SERVED

Of all the smart restaurants that serve Edinburgh New Town’s discerning foodies, Channings has been one of the best for years. Located under the hotel of the same name, it’s a bare-knuckle fight between residents and guests over the small number of tables, as in this mainly residential oasis top quality restaurants are thin on the ground. But the winners are rewarded handsomely in this intimate, candle-lit room.

Delicately flavoured seasonal starters of fresh crab, langoustine, wood pigeon or Goat’s cheese are followed by well hung Scottish beef, fresh fish or slow roasted loin of rabbit, braised leg, seared squid, with prune & pancetta risotto. Wines are supplied by a quality local firm, Inverarity Vaults, and retain a section hovering around the £20 mark for those who don’t want to delve deeper into the list.
 
Head Chef is Karen Mackay who sources all her supplies locally (Burnsides for game, Gilmour for meat, Duncan’s for hand dived scallops) as well as her own back garden for rhubarb and herbs.

DRIVE BY

For an hour or so…

Walk out to the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art for a charming few hours among Impressionism, Hockney, and outside, some stunning landscape art by Charles Jencks. Sharing the same pleasant parkland is The Dean Gallery where you’ll find surrealism and the Dadaists. A beautiful place to enjoy great art.

For most of the day…

The Forth Railway Bridge is effectively Scotland’s National Monument and seen from close up is even more overpowering. Best viewed from the adjacent road bridge or the ferry which pootles across the Forth from South to North Queensferry. Lunch in The Wee Restaurant in North Queensferry (which itself is tiny) is a delight and may afford a glimpse of Gordon Brown, his home when not in Downing Street.

A full day out…

Cross the Forth Bridge and turn left for the Royal Burgh of Culross, a charming Fife coastal village restored by the National Trust which should be overflowing with tartan gift shops, parking wardens, and general tat. But it’s not. It’s quiet, elegant and a walk around the neatly trimmed little houses reveals some surprising hillside rear gardens.

The main draw is The Palace, a fully restored early 17th Century Merchants House which was never a Royal Residence but doesn’t suffer for that. The tour through the house is well worth it as is the trail around the village.
Snacks are served in the Bessie Bar Hall which adjoins the house, where some of the most charming staff to be found anywhere in Scotland will serve you organic soups, haggis, sandwiches, teas and soft drinks.

Further reading
VisitScotland’s new “locals guide” and “Scotland the Best” by Peter Irvine. Nobody should ever visit Scotland without a copy.