Why Old Town's strengths lie in the shadows - Scottish Architecture News

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Why Old Town's strengths lie in the shadows

Archiseek / UK / Scotland / News / 2006 / May 24

Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, famously stated that when he heard the word "culture" he reached for his Luger. Anyone seeing the words "iconic" and "architecture" in the same sentence might feel a similar reaction, since their conjunction invariably indicates the author's lack of understanding of architecture and the making of cities. The primary strength of Edinburgh's Old Town - and what justifies its Unesco World Heritage Site status - is the unique fishbone pattern of the closes, vennels and wynds that sit perpendicular to the spine of the Royal Mile. The three parts of this extraordinary street - the Lawnmarket, the High Street and the Canongate - provided the foreground to public life in the medieval city.

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