George Street First New Town

George Street is the principal street in the heart of Edinburgh’s historic New Town which comprises a significant proportion of Edinburgh city-centre. Edinburgh’s New Town is based on a 1767 masterplan by James Craig. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest complete example of Georgian town planning anywhere in the world.

Over the years George Street has become dominated by motor traffic and today the central spine down the street consists entirely of car parking which has severely compromised its position as the pride of Edinburgh’s New Town. The George Street & First New Town Transformation (GSNT) project is a major public realm project that aims to reconfigure the use of space in George Street and it’s surrounding streets and squares to create an exceptional, high-quality people-focused street environment. This will be one of the first projects to be delivered as part of City of Edinburgh Council’s City Centre Transformation Plan - an ambitious 10-year strategy and delivery plan that seeks to provide a world-class, vibrant, attractive and people-focused city-centre.

The design for the GSNT project has been developed over several years and been through extensive consultation with both residents and businesses on the street as well as a wide range of stakeholders The design puts people first by removing the central car parking and significantly restricting non-essential vehicle access onto the street. A Dutch style cycle street runs through the central spine, pavements have been widened significantly and landscape seating areas have been created to provide places for people to pause, rest and appreciate the grand architecture of the street. These areas will incorporate a mix of planting and the planters have been designed to serve as rain gardens which will help make Edinburgh New Town more climate resilient which contributes to the holistic sustainable design ethos that underpins the designs for George Street.

GSNT is a flagship project which will have a transformational impact in many ways not just on Edinburgh’s city centre but the city as a whole. It will trigger large scale behaviour change by strongly promoting active and sustainable travel as the first choice when visiting Edinburgh city-centre, it will create a people-focussed city centre that is attractive, greener, healthier and more sustainable and future-proof and it will reinforce the status of Edinburgh as an iconic world-class city for people to live, work and visit.