A PLAN FOR IMPROVING THE CITY OF EDINBURGH

(CITY PLANNING-EDINBURGH)  CRAIG, James.  A PLAN FOR IMPROVING THE CITY OF EDINBURGH.                                              

Edinburgh: The Author, by W. Creech, and others, 1786. 4to. Later brown cloth. 21 pages, 2 folding engraved plates (with later, 1865, folding plan, bound as a "frontispiece" at a later date). First edition.

Rare work with only two copies recorded on OCLC - both at the National Library of Scotland.  James Craig (1739-1795) is best known as the winner of the 1765 competition for the New Town to be built to the north of the Old Town of Edinburgh and the designer of the revised plan of 1766 that was actually implemented.  An essential part of this plan was the manner in which the New Town was to be linked to the old Town via North Bridge over lower-lying land and the recently drained North Loch.  The development of the New Town was complicated and uneven, dogged by a variety of issues (A.J. Youngson, The Making of Classical Edinburgh, gives a good account); but in 1784, activity accelerated and the issue of the building of a South Bridge (an extension to the south of North Bridge) to allow further integration of the city was addressed.  In 1786 Craig published his Plan for Improving the City of Edinburgh, in which he puts forward some proposals for re-planning along the North Bridge/ new South Bridge route.  Although the ideas in the plan were not implemented, they are not without merit ("a major although unsolicited contribution to the debate on public improvements" and "interesting and original, showing a lively sense of the activities and pleasures of city life" according to Youngson). 

It is worth noting that Robert Adam prepared several plans and proposals at exactly the same time, addressing the same problems -- and his proposals remained unrealized as well.  "Had the proposals of either Adam or Craig been executed, they would have contributed, along with some other proposals made at the same time, the largest scheme of public improvements carried out in Edinburgh in the eighteen century... Nevertheless they deserve notice, because they show that the splendid ambitiousness of 1752 [in which year Proposals for carrying on certain Public Works in the City of Edinburgh, most likely written by Sir Gilbert Elliott, appeared] had not been lost thirty-four years later..." (A.J. Youngson, page 119).

The added 1865 Plan the City and Castle of Edinburgh, is by William Edgar, architect.  Minor marks at upper board, large folding "frontispiece" plan of 1865 lightly browned and repeatedly folded with several short tears at edges, not affecting image; minor dusting and light browning at edges with some offset, but overall a very good copy of this rare publication.

 

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