Travel Newington, Edinburgh Map

Travel to Newington, Edinburgh Map

Newington, Edinburgh tourist guide map of landmarks & destinations by Walkfo

Newington, Edinburgh history

---

Early years

Until the 16th century, the area now occupied by Newington lay within the ancient forest of Drumselch. The area was otherwise unnamed save for Lowsie Law, which was likely located near modern South Oxford Street. A minor skirmish of the Marian civil war was fought here in 1571. In 1586, the town council feued six lots on an uncultivated area of the Burgh Muir bounded by what are today East and West Preston street.

18th and early 19th centuries

From the mid-18th century, developments such as George Square and Nicolson Street had brought wealthy Edinburgh citizens out of the Old Town and into the Southside. Further development south, however, was stalled by the opening of the North Bridge in 1772, which aided the northward development of the city into the New Town. In 1805, the entire Newington estate was bought by the surgeon Benjamin Bell, who was assisted in his business dealings by fellow surgeon Alexander Wood.

Victorian era

Development in Newington slowed between 1830 and 1850 but soon after resumed at pace. In this period, properties in the southern part of Blacket Place and the villas of Mayfield Terrace were developed. By 1865, a report by Henry Littlejohn found Newington to be the most densely populated of Edinburgh’s southern suburbs. In the expanding suburb, burials were accommodated by the establishment of Newington Cemetery, which opened for internments in 1846. After Warriston Cemetery, Newington, which was laid out by David Cousin from 1848, was the second of Edinburgh’s privately managed suburban cemeteries. Causewayside, in particular, had, from 1850, become overcrowded and unruly. Barriers were erected in Duncan Street and Salisbury Place to prevent the district’s inhabitants from accessing the wealthier residences of Minto Street. Newington Parish Church supported a missionary in this area from 1866 and permanent mission buildings were established on Causewayside in 1886. In these, the Newington Social Union was established in 1892. Improved transport links to the city aided Newington’s rapid development in this period. Buses reached the area in the 1850s and tramcars in 1871. Newington Railway Station on the Edinburgh Suburban and Southside Junction Railway opened in 1884. The disruption of 1843 saw the establishment of a Free Church congregation on Newington Road. A United Presbyterian congregation from Potterrow moved to a new church on the corner of Hope Park Terrace and Causewayside in 1867 while the Congregationalists established a church nearby at Hope Park Terrace in 1876. The Free Church went on to establish a congregation at Mayfield in 1875 while a Free congregation from Chambers Street moved to new buildings on Suffolk Road in 1898 under the name Craigmillar Park Free. The Church of Scotland established a mission under the name of Mayfield on Craigmillar Park in 1879. St Peter’s, an Epsicopal church, was built on Lutton Place between 1857 and 1865 while St Columba’s Roman Catholic Church was established on Upper Gray Street in 1889. Nearby, on Duncan Street, a Baptist church had opened in 1841. In 1847, the church was purchased by the United Presbyterians, who moved out in 1863 to the newly-opened Grange Road United Presbyterian Church on the corner of Causewayside and Grange Road in Sciennes. After this, the Duncan Street church was again occupied by a Baptist congregation. After Sir George Stewart’s death in 1822, Newington House had passed through a number of owners until its occupation in 1852 by Liberal politician, Duncan McLaren. At the western edge of Newington, McLaren acquired the lands of Mayfield and Rosebank along with the village of Powburn. From 1862, the area around Waverley Park was feued to a plan by David Cousin. In 1864, Cousin radically revised this scheme to create a plan of curving streets centring on a communally-owned green space at Waverley Park. This may have been inspired by a similar scheme at London’s Ladbroke Grove. Cousin also proposed that, like the Blacket development to its north, entry to this scheme would be guarded by gates and lodges. Lodges remain at the Dalkeith Road entrance to Queen’s Crescent and on Peel Terrace. After McLaren acquired the Mayfield estate in 1863, he again commissioned Cousin to produce a feu plan; however, only two terraces on the east side of Mayfield Gardens were laid out to Cousin’s plan. Nevertheless, the area had been developed almost entirely by the time of McLaren’s death in 1886. McLaren’s personality and politics are reflected in the names of the streets he developed: Cobden Road, Peel Terrace, and Bright’s Crescent are named for fellow reformist politicians; Queen’s Terrace for his loyalty to Queen Victoria; Waverely Park for his love of literature; and Mentone and Ventnor terraces for his favourite holiday resorts. Encouraged by the success of McLaren’s Mayfield scheme, Sir Robert Gordon-Gilmour feued the area to its south as East and West Craigmillar Park, beginning in 1876. Development was, however, slower and the remaining unfeued land was turned into a nine-hole golf course in 1895. After one of its fairways was developed for housing in 1904, the club moved to Blackford and the remaining area became sport fields. In the same year, Craigmillar Park Bowling Club opened on vacant space in West Craigmillar Park. The creation of these sporting facilities supplemented the Waverely Lawn Tennis and Squash Club, which had been founded in 1885. The 19th century saw the establishment in Newington of several health and educational institutions. Completed in 1877 on the site of the old settlement at the Powburn, the West Craigmillar Asylum for Blind Females superseded the blind asylum on Nicolson Street. In 1875, Longmore Hospital on Salisbury Place opened as the Edinburgh Hospital for Incurables. Founded by a bequest of John Alexander Longmore, the hospital occupied the former site of several houses and a boys’ school known as Wilson’s Academy. Other schools of this period in Newington included Munro’s Academy and Robertson’s Academy, which occupied a Gothic building on the site of what is now South Oxford Street. St Margaret’s School was founded in Craigmillar Park in 1890 as Queen Margaret’s College for Young Ladies. Also in 1890, Madame Muriset’s Craigmillar Park College was established on Crawfurd Road as a girls’ boarding school. It closed at Muriset’s retirement in 1932, by which time it was also accepting boys. By 1896, the need for a new public school in Newington and the Southside was recognised by the foundation of Preston Street School on the corner of East Preston Street and Dalkeith Road. It opened in 1897 and remains in use as a primary school. St Columba’s Roman Catholic Church had opened an attached school the previous year on Strathearn Road in Marchmont. In 1897, this moved to Newington Road, moving again to the former Causewayside School building in 1924. It closed in 1941.

20th and 21st centuries

From 1907, Newington House was occupied by the cartographer John George Bartholomew. Another printing works was established at Bernard terrace by Pillans & Wilson in 1919. In 1913, undeveloped land at East Craigmillar Park was purchased by the Edinburgh Association for the Provision of Hostels for Women Students. During the Second World War, they served as a prisoner-of-war camp for German naval officers.

  

Newington, Edinburgh map & travel guide with history & landmarks to explore

---

Tourist Guide to Newington, Edinburgh Map

---

–

Newington, Edinburgh map historic spot	Newington, Edinburgh map tourist destination	Newington, Edinburgh map plaque	Newington, Edinburgh map geographic feature
Walkfo Newington, Edinburgh travel map key: visit National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top travel destinations in Newington, Edinburgh