The West End is an affluent district of Edinburgh, Scotland, which along with the rest of the New Town and Old Town forms central Edinburgh, and Edinburgh's UNESCO World Heritage Site. The area boasts several of the city's hotels, restaurants, independent shops, offices and arts venues, including the Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh International Conference Centre and the Caledonian Hotel. The area also hosts art festivals and crafts fairs.
Built as a western expansion of the New Town, the northern part of the West End sits on the Water of Leith river and forms part of Edinburgh's UNESCO World Heritage Site. The West End is contiguous with the rest of New Town and is accordingly included in the New Town Conservation Area. As can be inferred therefore, this area of the city contains many buildings of great architectural beauty, primarily long rows and crescents of Georgian terraced houses. The West End also incorporates many of the New Town Gardens, a heritage designation since 2001.
The district is one of Edinburgh's most affluent areas, and includes many of the most expensive streets in Scotland's capital. Many nations have their consulates in the West End. The Scottish Episcopal Church has its headquarters, Forbes House, in the district and the official residence of the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is also located here.
The West End district is immediately west of the rest of the New Town, and also the Old Town. It is bordered to the north by the Stockbridge, Dean Village, and Ravelston districts, Tollcross and Fountainbridge districts to the south, and West Coates, Haymarket and Murrayfield to the West.
History
In 1615 John Byres the city Treasurer built Easter Coates House to the west of the city. The house had a truly huge estate, stretching to St Cuthbert's Church. The house was originally a Laird's house, and as the city of Edinburgh grew, and John Byres became city Treasurer and Bailie, it became an early example of a Burgher's city mansion. The house is still standing as of the 21st century as the centre of the West End district.
Founding of the West End (Western New Town) For the history and development of the rest of New Town see: New Town, Edinburgh.
In 1806, Shandwick Place was developed as a western extension of New Town's Princes Street, to the south of the Easter Coates House estate, by John Cockburn Ross, of Shandwick in Easter Ross, who commissioned architect James Tait to come up with a plan for the west of New Town. It was eventually joined up with the newly built Maitland Street (started 1807), named after its developer and owner Sir Alexander Charles Maitland, 2nd baronet of Cliftonshall.
Around 1800, the Easter Coates House estate was bought by William Walker, an Advocate and the Gentleman Usher of the White Rod in the Estates of Parliament, who sought to develop the east section of the estate, as a western extension of the then newly built New Town. In 1808 a plan for the West End Village was devised by the architect Robert Brown. Property in the West of the city was desirable to the wealthy early on because the winds carried smog, dust and pollution eastward.
Under the Brown plan Melville Street would form the centrepiece of the new Georgian West End Village, extending directly from the western facing side of West Register House and Randolph Place. The street would be accessed to the south at Shandwick Place, from Coates Crescent by Walker Street, which would itself be intersected by William Street to create a Georgian grid layout, with both roads named after William Walker. Construction began in 1813 on Coates Crescent. Brown also developed Atholl Crescent which faces Coates Crescent. Melville Street was largely completed by the 1830s although the corner plots would remain unfinished until the 1860s. At the centre of Melville Street is a bronze statue of Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville standing on two large stone steps.
The William Walker estate abutted the estate of James Erskine, Lord Alva and the Erskine Trustees, with Stafford Street forming the junction between the two estates. The Erskine family estate was developed alongside the Walker estate, but using James Gillespie Graham as the architect, instead of Brown. Gillespie Graham was the architect for the Earl of Moray and had designed the Moray Feu in the New Town, and was employed by Lord Alva to continue the New Town westward. Alva Street (named for Lord Alva), which serves as a continuation of William Street and the Georgian grid, was constructed in 1830 and is a rare and fine example of Gillespie Graham's Georgian work.