A brief history of George Street – Edinburgh

In this weeks Edinburgh Vlog we tell the brief history of the original of George street in the heart of the new town in Edinburgh, Scotland.

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[Music] hello my name is Tony welcome to Edinburgh today we are going to talk about the history of George Street this is George Street right behind me here um we haven’t done history for a while how are you hope you’re all happy healthy and well yeah we haven’t done history for a while um and well haven’t done anything for a while really um and George Street it’s it’s got a nice little history about the making of it it’s got some things that have happened on it not a lot really you know when we’re talking about big historical events battles and things like that it’s not really that kind of place but it’s got a nice history of the building of it and the concept of it when it came to the building of the new town so let’s talk about that so from where we are right now it’s not you know it doesn’t look the nicest street it’s got all the parking spaces in the middle um lot of bus and things about the place there’s St Andrew square right behind me there um but this should all be changing actually there’s plans to make all of this pedestrian eyes if I can find a picture of the of the concept of it I’ll put it in but yeah there’s plans to get all of this pedestrian eyes and make it far more accessible and it’ll change the street completely if they decide to actually do it um it’ll change the area completely but when I was growing up George Street to me was wasn’t the main street of the center of Edinburgh it was very much Prince’s Street when I was young that’s where my mom would take me that’s where the shops were you know it was a big thing to come in in town and go to the shops in Edinburgh not so much now because you know there’s there’s shopping malls and complexes and everything everywhere but when I was young there really wasn’t that sort of thing so coming into the center and Edinburgh and go to Princess Street was a big thing it was exciting you get on the bus you’d come into town my mom would take us to H lunch at Jenners you know in the cafe that they used to have at the top these sort of things things that don’t exist anymore however when it was all designed for the original plan of the new town Prince Street was a residential street for posos people looking over at the castle and things with Prince Street Gardens is a private Garden not public space as it is now but George Street was supposed to be the Main Street not Prince Street George Street was supposed to be the Main Street and they thought about that with the fact of where it is it’s placed at the highest point of what the new town is built on the new town is BU built on a kind of a small Hill and George Street is at the highest point of that right in the center in fact the street is named after this man right here King George ivth however the street was not originally named George Street actually as we look at the Statue of George IV here you can see what I mean about it being raised if I look down there that’s towards Prince Street you can see it’s uphill and then we turn around and it goes immediately straight back down again down towards uh York place so and uh Queen Street so you can see it was supposed to be the most raised most Central most prominent Street in town and like I was saying it wasn’t originally called George Street on the original plans of the new town it was only called principal Street meaning the main street so this was supposed to be I mean I suppose the the main High Street of the new town but the whole concept was to bring people with money to bring them to bring the money and to bring the powerful people back to Edinburgh because the Old Town up there wasn’t nice it really wasn’t nice it was overcrowded there was sewage everywhere it was it was not a nice place now it’s you look at all the history let’s go see all these beautiful buildings and I’m I’m guilty of that I love it but back then not nice not nice at all for that was why the new town was built in this street very much was about let’s get the money back into Edinburgh however it wasn’t popular like people were not happy with the main design of it for some of the planning of the of the street they didn’t like the fact that it was so wide nowadays thank goodness it’s so wide but at the time they were like why why do we need a street this wide and they didn’t like the idea of the big bills inside they thought it looked more like a Barracks than a big Grand Street they thought it was boring cuz you know buildings like this and this and this were all boring although I suppos they weren’t all like that they were meaning more like that for that sort of concept of barracks and boring sort of look however after a short period of it being you know mostly residential and bringing these people in the street did start to change Banks started to set up here hence uh the Dome over there which was a bank at one point and then there’s the beautiful hotels and then the big fancy Posh boutiques started to open up now I’m not talking about these sort of bits where these uh fronts have been added on and extended onto what was a residential building and these shops created underneath no I’m talking about more like over here more like these sort of grander shop fronts making them beautiful big boutiques that go really quite far into the building quite deep making them really nice big shops you can see a mixture of the two different things here as well well and over here you’ve got a a style of what Prince Street used to be like as well the sort of lower entrance for the staff and then the higher entrance for the um for the people that live there you see more of that on Queen Street and things rather than you do here in Prince Street now but there would have been far more of that on here originally I did say that it’s not really got any history like the types of um uh battles or or anything like that however one of the biggest moments in its history of it when it’s new comes with the building right behind me the assembly rooms in 1822 the assembly rooms was the home of the hor the home of the grand ball welcoming at King George ivth and you know this showing the Splendor of the new town so it was a massive ball in his honor that took place right inside there and the street became the backdrop for that incredible momentous event not something than we really do nowadays you know we don’t hold Big Balls for the king but all that being said all that history there George Street was supposed to be the Crown Jewel of the new new town that was supposed to be the main thorir this was supposed to be the street The Landmark for anyone moving into the new town joining St Andrews qu Square to Charlotte square at the other end it is supposed to be that main sort of Street and for the most part it’s kind of always remained that it’s definitely always been the place where you get the higher end shops the higher end boutiques um not so many banks and things on here now but still there is some um and there was a lot used to be a lot of head office banks on this sort of Street as well not not so much now again but still it has got your higher end shops and it’s still got the assembly rooms so there you have it a very very brief sort of look at the history of George Street um I think is definitely worth coming to um if you’re here in town and you want to do some shopping if you want to look at some things that are maybe not you know your your marks expenses and your Prim marks and things and you want to find something else then it’s worth coming to and there are some beautiful places to eat on here as well um so that’s always worth a visit there you have it hope you’ve enjoyed that little brief history of George Street there if you’ve liked if you’ve enjoyed that please leave a like leave a comment subscribe if you haven’t already please remember to go over and check out my other channel Tony gives go where I’m putting all these shorts up without me uh trying to rebuild a house uh but till next time bye humans [Music] [Music]