The New Town Gardens are a collection of around 30 mostly private gardens and parks within the Edinburgh

New Town New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

Conservation Area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

spread across the New Town and north of the West End, listed as a heritage designation since March 2001. The gardens comprise a series of 18th and 19th century town gardens, squares and walks, established contemporaneously with the New Town of Edinburgh between 1767 and around 1850.

History

Most of the gardens were established contemporaneously to the New Town, and north West End of Edinburgh. Some have unique history such as the Hopetoun Crescent Gardens, which were the original site of the

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies ...

. The Queen Street Central gardens have a pond with an island, said to have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's ''

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''.

Membership and access

Each garden has different rules concerning criteria for membership and access, with some permitting only those owning or renting surrounding properties a key, while others welcome applications from residents in other parts of the City of Edinburgh. Some gardens are regularly opened to the public, such as

St Andrew Square St Andrew Square is a garden square in Edinburgh, Scotland located at the east end of George Street. The gardens, part of the collection of New Town Gardens, are owned by a number of private owners, managed by Essential Edinburgh and opened to ...

, while others are only opened to the public on

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or not at all.

Ownership and management

Each garden has a different management and ownership structure. Ownership is often by private shareholders or a joint ownership by the local residents. For example, East Queen Street Gardens are owned by shareholders who have explicitly bought a share in the land, and keys are rented to those who apply successfully for access, as a way of bringing in income to the garden. The gardens are then usually managed by Commissioners – around eight for each garden. The Commissioners are elected by the owners, and have responsibility for sourcing gardeners, and ensuring the gardens are well maintained. A Clerk of the gardens usually handles membership applications and entitlement. The Clerk will be a member of a local

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

s firm, with their contact details often on plaques on the gates to the gardens. Some of the gardens, such as Bellvue Crescent Gardens and Gayfield Square Gardens, are now owned and managed by

City of Edinburgh Council The City of Edinburgh Council is the local government authority for the city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. With a population of in mid-2019, it is the second most populous local authority area in Scotland. In its current form, the counci ...

List of gardens

* Bellevue Crescent Gardens * Charlotte Square Gardens * Claremont Crescent Gardens *

Dean Gardens Dean Gardens was one of the largest homes in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. At the time of its completion in 1992, the 32,000 square foot, 15 bedroom house was the largest in Atlanta. The former owner, Larry Dean, who made his fortune in software ...

* Douglas Crescent Gardens * Drummond Place Garden * Drumsheugh Gardens *

East Circus Place Garden East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

Eglinton Crescent and Glencairn Crescent Gardens Eglinton can refer to: People * Earl of Eglinton, a title in the Peerage of Scotland * Geoffrey Eglinton (1927–2016), British chemist * Timothy Eglinton, a British biogeoscientist *William Eglinton (1857–1933), a British spiritualist medium a ...

Gayfield Square Gardens Gayfield Park, commonly known as Gayfield, is a football stadium in Arbroath, Angus, Scotland. It is the home ground of Scottish Professional Football League team Arbroath F.C. The club have played at Gayfield since 1880, although the pitc ...

Grosvenor Crescent and Lansdowne Crescent Gardens Grosvenor may refer to: People * Grosvenor (surname) * Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster * Grosvenor Francis (1873–1944), Australian politician * Grosvenor Hodgkinson (1818–1881), English lawyer and politician Places, buildings and ...

Hillside Crescent Gardens Hillside may refer to the side of a hill. Places Australia *Hillside mine, a proposed mine on the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia * Hillside, New South Wales *Hillside, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne Canada * Hillside, Nova Scotia United Kin ...

* Hopetoun Crescent Gardens *

India Street Gardens India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Learmonth Gardens Learmonth may refer to: ;People * George-Yuri Andreevich Learmonth (1590s–1633) was a Scottish soldier in Russian service. * Ian Learmonth, British police officer * James Rögnvald Learmonth (1895–1967), Scottish surgeon * John Learmonth ...

* London Road Gardens * Moray Feu Gardens * Queen Street Central Gardens * Queen Street Gardens East * Queen Street Gardens West * Randolph Crescent Garden * Regent, Royal and Carlton Terrace Gardens * Rothesay Terrace Gardens * Royal Circus Gardens * Rutland Square Garden * Saxe-Coburg Place Gardens * St Andrew Square Gardens * St Bernard's Crescent and Garden

References

{{reflist Gardens in Edinburgh New Town, Edinburgh