ABSTRACT
Edinburgh Festival and the year was rounded off with a helter skelter, fairground and ice rink in the square to celebrate Christmas and Hogmanay. All of this was overlooked by the city’s Harvey Nichols department store and, no doubt, also the ghosts of the city’s bankers and merchants for whom the square was built in the late 18th century. Nothing like this happened in the first 250 years of the square’s history. It was created as a private space for the exclusive use of the surrounding residents. However, as the residents moved out, it became a marginal space, slightly neglected and prone to occasional anti-social behaviour. The square is the earliest part of Edinburgh New Town. It was designed by James Craig, who won the competition of a lifetime to plan an extension to reduce the chronic overcrowding in the city in 1766. At the time he was a newly qualified stonemason with no architectural training and only 26 years old. He was rewarded with a gold medal and the freedom of the city, even if his proposals were considered unbuildable and the New Town
