Ceud mìle fàilte!
The task for this week’s blog is to use digital maps to illustrate the growing influence of modernity in a city of your choice. In order to complete this task, I will look at two maps of Edinburgh, one of which is from the eighteenth century and the other which is from the nineteenth century.
Katie McKay | 112417258
Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and today it is described as being “one of the most distinctive and widely recognised cities in the world” (Undiscovered Scotland, 2014). However, the distinctive and widely recognisable city of Edinburgh that can be seen today differs from that of eighteenth century Edinburgh.
Map 1.1: Plan of the City of Edinburgh in 1764
Creator: John Rocque. Source: http://www.commons.wikimedia.org The above map illustrates Edinburgh’s streetscape before James Craig’s grid pattern plan for the north of the city was implemented.
In the early eighteenth century, Edinburgh was an overcrowded city and in order to accommodate the population, the city was crammed with tenement buildings, thus resulting in very narrow streets in Edinburgh city (see map 1.1) (Nenadic, 2011). The modernisation of the city did not begin until the collapse of a tenement building in 1751. As a result of the tenement collapse and the dissatisfaction with the conditions in the Old Town, there was an extension to the north of the city in the 1760s which was planned to James Craig’s grid pattern system (see map 1.2) (Undiscovered Scotland, 2014).
Map 1.2: Plan of the City of Edinburgh in 1820
Creator: John Woods. Source: http://www.maps.nls.uk The above map illustrates the growing influence of modernity in the city.
In contrast to the 1764 map of Edinburgh (see map 1.1), the growing influence of modernity in the city can be seen in the map from 1820, the influence of modernity is visible through the public squares and boulevards in the map (see map 1.2). The use of a grid pattern of public squares and boulevards illustrates how the relationship between the buildings and their surroundings were predetermined; the use of grid patterns in the planning of a city highlights the growing influence of modernity in the city.
I’ll finish this week’s blog entry with a quote from the Edinburgh World Heritage website;
“The plan seems elegantly simple but it took Edinburgh from being the medieval ‘Auld Reekie’ of the past to the grandeur and classical style of the city as ‘Athens of the North’.”
That is all for this week,
Katie M
Bibliography:
Edinburgh World Heritage. (n.d.) The New Town Plan. Available at: http://www.ewht.org.uk/learning/Athens/the-new-town-plan [Accessed 16 October, 2014]
Nenadic, S. (2011) The Rise of Edinburgh. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/scotland_edinburgh_01.shtml [Accessed 16 October, 2014]
Rocque, J. (2008) A Plan of the City and Castle of Edinburg. Available at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Rocque_Plan_von_Edinburgh_1764.jpg [Accessed 16 October, 2014]
Undiscovered Scotland. (2014) Edinburgh. Available at: http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/edinburgh/edinburgh/ [Accessed 15 October, 2014]
Wood, J. (1823) Plan of the City of Edinburgh, including all the latest and intended improvements. Available at:
http://maps.nls.uk/view/74400026 [Accessed 15 October, 2014]
Drawing From The Archives 