5 Surprising Facts About Edinburgh’s New Town

Like the Old Town, Edinburgh’s more recent development is crammed with buildings of historical, cultural and architectural significance, as well as a variety of sites worthy of a visit. It may not have the hidden closes and dark wynds that contain a host of secrets, but the New Town still springs some surprises:

Harry Potter was born in Edinburgh.

Well, not exactly, but JK Rowling famously conceived (the idea of) the boy wizard on a train from Manchester to London and then spent chunks of time writing the series in locations around Edinburgh, including the Balmoral Hotel on Princes Street where the last chapter of the final instalment was completed.

‘The Harrods of the North’ was in the New Town.

Princes Street is shopping central for locals and visitors alike, with a clutch of big-name department stores. Jenners, however, which first opened in 1838 and was affectionately known as ‘The Harrods of the North’, traded on Princes Street until 2020.

All phone lines lead to Edinburgh (sort of).

Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, was born on South Charlotte Street in Edinburgh’s New Town in 1847. Unfortunately, he didn’t hang around too long and his family emigrated to Canada 23 years later.

The Mound once had an electric blanket.

The Mound is an artificial slope, formed when over a million cartloads of earth, dug out while the New Town was being built, were dumped into the infamous Nor’ Loch. In 1959 an electric blanket was installed under the surface of the road on The Mound to keep it free from ice and snow, although it is no longer operational.

Edinburgh is the greenest city in the UK.

Scotland’s capital has more trees per head of population than any other city in the United Kingdom. The New Town is littered with small parks and gardens, while Calton Hill and the Royal Botanic Gardens fringe the district.