ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring Mission to Edinburgh - Historic Scotland
ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring Mission to Edinburgh - Historic Scotland ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring Mission to Edinburgh - Historic Scotland
3. Inscription and Statement of Significance The Old and New Towns of Edinburgh World Heritage Site was inscribed on the list of World Heritage sites at the meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Berlin in 1995. It was inscribed under the following criteria: Criteria (ii) Exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time …..on developments in architecture…..monumental arts, town planning or landscape design. The successive planned expansions of the New Town, and the high quality of its architecture, set standards for Scotland and beyond, and exerted a major influence on the development of urban architecture and town planning throughout out Europe, in the 18 th and 19 th centuries Criteria (iv) Be an outstanding example of a type of building or architectural ensemble which illustrates a significant stage in human history The Old and New Towns together form a dramatic reflection of significant changes in European urban planning, from the inward‐looking, defensive, walled medieval city of Royal Palaces, abbeys and organically developed small burgage plots in the Old Town, through the expansive formal Enlightenment planning of the 18 th and 19 th centuries in the New Town, to the 19 th century rediscovery and revival of the Old Town with its adaptation of a distinctive Baronial style of architecture in an urban setting. The following Statement of Significance for Edinburgh was adopted by the World Heritage Committee at its meeting in Quebec in July 2008: “The remarkable juxtaposition of two clearly articulated urban planning phenomena. The contrast between the organic medieval Old Town and the planned Georgian New Town provides a clarity of urban structure unrivalled in Europe. The juxtaposition of these two distinct townscapes, each of exceptional historic and architectural interest, which are linked across the landscaped divide, the ‘great arena’ of Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley valley, by the urban viaduct, North Bridge, and by the Mound, creates the outstanding urban landscape. 16
The Old Town stretches along a high ridge from the Castle on its dramatically situated rock, down to the Palace of Holyrood. It’s form reflects the burgage plots of the Canongate, founded as an ‘abbatial burgh’ dependent on the Abbey of Holyrood, and the national tradition of building tall on the narrow ‘tofts’ or plots separated by lanes or ‘closes’ which created some of the world’s tallest buildings of their age; the dramatic, robust and distinctive tenement buildings. It contains many 16th and 17th century merchants' and nobles' houses such as the early 17th century restored mansion house of Gladstone's Land which rises to six storeys, and important early public buildings such as the Canongate Tolbooth and St Giles Cathedral. The Old Town is characterised by the survival of the little altered medieval ‘fishbone’ street pattern of narrow closes, wynds and courts leading off the spine formed by the High Street, the broadest, longest street in the Old Town, with a sense of enclosed space derived from its width, the height of the buildings lining it, and the small scale of any breaks between them. The New Town, constructed between 1767 ‐1890 as a collection of seven new towns on the glacial plain to the north of the Old Town, is framed and articulated by an uncommonly high concentration of planned ensembles of ashlar‐faced, world‐class, neo‐classical buildings, associated with renowned architects, including John & Robert Adam, Sir William Chambers and William Playfair. Contained and integrated with the townscape are gardens, designed to take full advantage of the topography, while forming an extensive system of private and public open space. The New Town is integrated with large green spaces. It covers a very large area, is consistent to an unequalled degree, and survives virtually intact. Some of the finest public and commercial monuments of the neo‐classical revival in Europe survive in the city, reflecting its continuing status as the capital of Scotland since 1437, and a major centre of thought and learning in the 18 th century Age of Enlightenment, with its close cultural and political links with mainland Europe. The successive planned expansions from the first New Town, and the high quality of the architecture, set standards for Scotland and beyond, and exerted a major influence on the development of urban architecture and town planning throughout Europe. 17
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3. Inscription and Statement of Significance<br />
The Old and New Towns of <strong>Edinburgh</strong> World Heritage Site was inscribed on<br />
the list of World Heritage sites at the meeting of the World Heritage<br />
Committee in Berlin in 1995.<br />
It was inscribed under the following criteria:<br />
Criteria (ii) Exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of<br />
time …..on developments in architecture…..monumental arts, <strong>to</strong>wn planning or<br />
landscape design.<br />
The successive planned expansions of the New Town, and the high quality of<br />
its architecture, set standards for <strong>Scotland</strong> and beyond, and exerted a major<br />
influence on the development of urban architecture and <strong>to</strong>wn planning<br />
throughout out Europe, in the 18 th and 19 th centuries<br />
Criteria (iv) Be an outstanding example of a type of building or architectural<br />
ensemble which illustrates a significant stage in human his<strong>to</strong>ry<br />
The Old and New Towns <strong>to</strong>gether form a dramatic reflection of significant<br />
changes in European urban planning, from the inward‐looking, defensive,<br />
walled medieval city of Royal Palaces, abbeys and organically developed small<br />
burgage plots in the Old Town, through the expansive formal Enlightenment<br />
planning of the 18 th and 19 th centuries in the New Town, <strong>to</strong> the 19 th century<br />
rediscovery and revival of the Old Town with its adaptation of a distinctive<br />
Baronial style of architecture in an urban setting.<br />
The following Statement of Significance for <strong>Edinburgh</strong> was adopted by the<br />
World Heritage Committee at its meeting in Quebec in July 2008:<br />
“The remarkable juxtaposition of two clearly articulated urban planning<br />
phenomena. The contrast between the organic medieval Old Town and the<br />
planned Georgian New Town provides a clarity of urban structure unrivalled in<br />
Europe. The juxtaposition of these two distinct <strong>to</strong>wnscapes, each of<br />
exceptional his<strong>to</strong>ric and architectural interest, which are linked across the<br />
landscaped divide, the ‘great arena’ of Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley valley, by<br />
the urban viaduct, North Bridge, and by the Mound, creates the outstanding<br />
urban landscape.<br />
16
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