New Town

Synopsis

In 1752 Edinburgh launched a competition to design a ‘New Town’ for the Scottish capital. The city desperately needed an upgrade - it was overcrowded, filthy and crumbling. With Scotland a partner in the new United Kingdom, it needed a capital to be proud of. At the same time, Edinburgh was seen as the intellectual capital of Europe - with Adam Smith, David Hume and other figures of the ‘Scottish Enlightenment’ creating an explosion of creative ideas that would change the world. The winning plan by James Craig was a masterpiece of Georgian city planning that reflected these Enlightenment ideas. This film tells the story of how the plan was made real, becoming the most ambitious building project in Britain, and transforming Edinburgh into the most perfect Georgian city on earth. [60 minutes]

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Year of release

2016

Subjects

Architecture; History

Keywords

Edinburgh; Enlightenment; Scotland; town planning; architecture: Georgian

Online availability

URI

https://store.bbc.com/new-town

Price

£1.89

Delivery

Download

Production Company

Name

BBC Scotland

Distributor

Name

BBC Store

Web

https://store.bbc.com/ External site opens in new window

Notes

NB. From May 2017 programmes are no longer available to buy on BBC Store. From November 1st 2017 the store will close completely and programmes bought from BBC Store will no longer be available to watch. Customers who have bought items from BBC Store will be contacted by email and refunded for their purchases either by full cash refund or Amazon video vouchers.