1804 Ainslie City Plan or Map of Edinburgh and Leith, Scotland

This is a rare 1804 John Ainslie city plan or map of Edinburgh and Leith, Scotland - prepared on the cusp of the major Second New Town expansion. The map depicts the Edinburgh from the Firth of Forth south to The Meadows, offering striking detail in both the Old Town and New Town. Edinburgh Castle, Carlton Hill, and the North Loch are prominently illustrated, with grid structure of New Town striking against the Old Town warren. Georges Street, Queen Street, and Princes Street are prominently labeled, along with Charlotte Square and St. Andrew's Square. Tracts of land owned by the Trader's Hospital, Heriots Hospital, Trinity Hospital, and innumerable private land owners are illustrated, labeled, and outlined.

Old Town and New Town

The settlement of Edinburgh developed around a medieval stronghold, achieving a royal charter in the 12th century. Edinburgh became Scotland's capital by the mid-14th century. The Old Town is the medieval part of the city and has maintained its street plan and Reformation-era buildings to the present day. Nonetheless, by the mid-18th century, Edinburgh had gained a reputation as a 'dirty' city and bubonic plague, cholera, and typhus were daily hazards. The city was also overcrowded, with visitors shocked by the tight quarters. In 1766, the architect James Craig, then twenty-six years old, won a design competition for the creation of a new settlement, forever to be known as New Town. Craig's plan employed a grid layout, public gardens, and other Enlightenment urban planning innovations. The new neighborhood's street names honored King George and his family and were meant to celebrate the Union between Scotland and England. North Loch was drained (although that took until the 1820s) and Edinburgh's wealthy moved to the elegant streets of New Town.

The Second New Town

Begun around the time this map was published, Northern or Second New Town, extended the city north of Queen Street. This development, completed in 1830, expanded on Craig's popular grid design. Ainslie includes a note stating that 'this plan of the Newtown North of Queen Street is copied from a Plan in the Possession of James Jackson Esq.', suggesting that Ainslie did not know exactly how this new development might look when completed.

Publication History and Census

This map was created and published by John Ainslie in 1804. Extremely rare. A single other example is cataloged in OCLC as part of the institutional collection at The British Library. No others known.