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Edinburgh Architecture Book

The Making of Classical Edinburgh publication by author A.J.Youngson.

post updated 2 December 2023

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The Making of Classical Edinburgh

Author: A.J.Youngson

Cost at the time of writing: £16.99

Date: 1993

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Pages: 448pp

Type: hardcover

Edinburgh Architecture Youngson Book

“This architectural history of Edinburgh amalgamates the city’s three main characteristics – a dramatic natural setting, an “Old Town” which evolved over several centuries and the Georgian “New Town” which was conceived and built between 1766 and 1840.

The book begins with the original proposals to build the New Town and ends a hundred years later with the death of William Playfair in the year of the completion of the National Gallery. It features period photographs of the city in the ’50s by the late Sir Edwin Smith”.

The Making of Classical Edinburgh

The complete 1966 edition reissued with contemporary images by Colin McLean

Features 82 photographs by renowned architectural photographer Edwin Smith

Includes 80 detailed plans, illustrations and maps

New for this edition: a preface and 24 contemporary reproductions of Edwin Smith’s original photographs by Colin McLean

According to Edinburgh University Press, This famous study of the planning, financing and building of the New Town in Edinburgh brings to life one of the most remarkable urban expansion programmes ever undertaken. A. J. Youngson introduces the modern reader to the vigour of the planning debates, the fundraising schemes, the administrative and legislative infrastructure of planning, the construction of public buildings as poles of attraction for speculative building, and all the hopes, quarrels, victories and civic bankruptcy that went into this great experiment.

Superbly illustrated with photographs by acclaimed photographer Edwin Smith, along with a selection of contemporary images and a preface by Colin McLean, this book is a classic work of economic and social history, and a fascinating account of the shaping of one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
source: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-making-of-classical-edinburgh.html