Queen Street is the northernmost east-west street in Edinburgh's First New Town. It begins in the east, at the

Scottish National Portrait Gallery The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is an art museum on Queen Street, Edinburgh. The gallery holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Co ...

. It links

York Place The Palace of Whitehall (also spelt White Hall) at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, except notably Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, were destroyed by fire. H ...

with the Moray Estate. It was named "Queen Street" after Queen

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was Queen of Great Britain and of Ireland as the wife of King George III from their marriage on 8 September 1761 until the union of the two kingdoms ...

, the wife of

George III of the United Kingdom George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Bri ...

and was so named on James Craig's plan of the New Town issued by the Town Council in 1768. Most early maps repeat this name but others misname it Queen's Street or Queens Street.

History

The street forms part of James Craig's plan of 1768 for a New Town to the north of Edinburgh's Old Town and the North Loch. This had three main east-west streets:

Princes Street Princes Street ( gd, Sràid nam Prionnsan) is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland and the main shopping street in the capital. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, stretching around 1.2 km (three ...

; George Street; and Queen Street. Queen Street was planned as a one-sided street, facing north over then fields towards the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meanin ...

. The first 30 metres beyond the road itself was originally laid out as private individual gardens to some of the Queen Street residents. Not until the opposite side was developed was there pressure to combine these gardens as a communal (but private) garden serving both Queen Street to the south and Heriot Row and Abercromby Place to the north. From 1840 this was known as Queen Street Gardens, which form part the collection of New Town Gardens. The street is planned as four terraces of equal length, originally all three storey and basement in form. Building began at the east end in 1769, one of the first being No 8 which was designed for Baron Orde by

Robert Adam Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his ...

, completed in 1771. Feuing continued piecemeal and was complete by 1792.The Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh, by Gifford, McWilliam and Walker The skew on the final two blocks at the west end (leading to North Charlotte Street and from there to

Charlotte Square 300px, Robert Adam's palace-fronted north side Charlotte Square is a garden square in Edinburgh, Scotland, part of the New Town, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The square is located at the west end of George Street and was intended ...

) result from an unresolved feuing argument with Lord Moray, who later built the Moray Estate on the land west of Queen Street. When

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

amalgamated with Edinburgh in 1920, the city gained a second Queen Street. This was renamed Shore Place in 1966.

Buildings of note

*1 -

*10 -

Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) is a medical royal college in Scotland. It is one of three organisations that sets the specialty training standards for physicians in the United Kingdom. It was established by Royal charter ...

*28 -

Scotch Malt Whisky Society The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS), founded in Edinburgh in 1983, is a membership organisation which bottles and sells single cask, single malt whisky. It purchases individual casks from more than 170 malt whisky distilleries in Scotland and ...

*43 - Former St Andrew's and St George's Church Halls, the streets only Gothic frontage * Yotel - on the site of

The Mary Erskine School The Mary Erskine School, popularly known as "Mary Erskine's" or "MES", is an all-girls independent secondary school in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1694 and has a roll of around 750 pupils. It is the sister school of the all-boys Stew ...

Notable residents

* 2 -

Patrick Wilson (architect) Patrick Wilson (c.1798 – 6 February 1871) was a British architect with a long career spanning across the 19th century from the Georgian aesthetic to the Victorian. He was a strong advocate of purpose-built housing for the poor working clos ...

and his son Robert Wilson (demolished) * 2 -

John McLachlan (architect) John McLachlan (6 June 1843 – 13 May 1893) was a Scottish architect, based in Edinburgh operating in the late 19th century. He was a brother-in-law to Robert Morham. He has been described as a "minor master". Life He was born in Thornhi ...

(demolished) * 3 -

Patrick Dudgeon Patrick Dudgeon of Cargen FRSE DL (1817–1895) was a British landowner, mineralogist and meteorologist. He was co-founder with Matthew Forster Heddle of the Mineralogical Society in Great Britain in 1876. He had a specialist interest in min ...

* 8 -

Robert Ord The Right Hon. Lord Robert Ord FRS MP (1700 – 12 February 1778) was a British lawyer and politician. Life Ord was born the son of John Ord, Under-Sheriff of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, of Newbiggin, Fenham and Newminster, Northumberland, and his wi ...

(special commission by

) * 8 -

Robert Lee, Lord Lee Right Hon Robert Lee, Lord Lee FRSE (1 April 1830 – 11 October 1890) was a 19th-century Scottish law lord. Life Lee was born on 1 April 1830, one of seven children of Rev John Lee, then minister of Lady Yester's Church, at 131 Princes Stre ...

* 12 - Hugh Cameron RSA and George Hay RSA * 18 -

James Jardine (engineer) James Jardine (13 November 1776–20 June 1858) was a Scottish civil engineer, mathematician and geologist. He was the first person to determine mean sea level. He built tunnels and bridges, including for the Innocent Railway, and built reservo ...

* 21 - Alexander Keiller (physician) * 22 - James Lorimer (advocate) * 22 - William Bindon Blood * 22 - Rev K. M. Phin * 22 - Prof Simon Somerville Laurie * 22 - Rev Aeneas Francon Williams and his family * 43 - Alexander Moody Stuart * 47 - Charles Neaves, Lord Neaves * 48 - Francis Brodie Imlach * 51 - James Miller (surgeon) * 51 -

Arthur Mitchell (physician) Sir Arthur Mitchell MD LLD (19 January 1826 – 12 October 1909) was a Scottish doctor involved in the study and care of patients with mental illness. He served on several public commissions, and wrote widely on history and anthropology. ...

* 51 - John Sibbald * 52 -

James Young Simpson Sir James Young Simpson, 1st Baronet, (7 June 1811 – 6 May 1870) was a Scottish obstetrician and a significant figure in the history of medicine. He was the first physician to demonstrate the anaesthetic properties of chloroform on humans ...

* 52 - Alexander Russell Simpson * 53 - James Dunsmure (physician) * 55 and 59 - Dionysius Wielobycki * 62 - Robert Frier artist * 64 - Robert Wemyss the

Earl of Wemyss and March Earl of Wemyss ( ) is a title in the Peerage of Scotland created in 1633. The Scottish Wemyss family had possessed the lands of Wemyss in Fife since the 12th century. Since 1823 the earldom has been held with the Earldom of March, created in ...

(special Commission) * 66 - General

Ralph Abercromby Lieutenant General Sir Ralph Abercromby (7 October 173428 March 1801) was a British soldier and politician. He rose to the rank of lieutenant-general in the British Army, was appointed Governor of Trinidad, served as Commander-in-Chief, Ir ...

(special commission) * 69 - Patrick Dalmahoy WS and his daughters * 73 - John Henderson (architect)

References

External links

* {{Streets and Squares in Edinburgh, state=collapsed New Town, Edinburgh Streets in Edinburgh