Royal Terrace, Edinburgh

A section of Royal Terrace at the west end of the street, with six Ionic columns. This contains two townhouses: number 4 with the central entrance and two bays to the left, and number 3 with the right two bays and an entrance in the un-colonnaded section to the right (just out of view).

William Henry Playfair designed Royal Terrace between 1820 and 1824. Together with the adjoining Carlton and Regent Terraces, the three streets are in a continuous line, cut only by Carlton Terrace Lane giving access to mews, leading around the eastern end of Calton Hill and surrounding Regent Gardens, the largest of the private gardens of the New Town. These streets, with Royal Terrace the grandest, were the showpiece of Playfair's conception for the Eastern New Town, intended to be grander than James Craig's original development.[2] The streets were named in connection with the visit to Edinburgh in 1822 of George IV. The extension was projected to reach from Calton Hill down towards Leith, although ultimately very little of the northern section was ever built.[3]

Royal Terrace is in the form of an extended, 121-bay 'palace front' of classical 3-bay (and one 4-bay) townhouses.[4] Playfair's original drawings are held by Edinburgh University, including plans for the whole facade as well as individual sections.[5] The houses are now all category A listed buildings.[4]

The design of the townhouses is unlike those in neighbouring streets. Door entrances and windows on the ground floor are arched and surrounded by V-chamfered rusticated stone work. Ten of the houses still have their original fanlights. The upper floors throughout are of polished ashlar stone with basements of droved ashlar. The houses are of two or three storeys with attics to the colonnaded sections.[4][6][7]

The long symmetrical facade alternates between colonnaded and un-colonnaded sections, from east to west, as follows:[4][6][7]

Panorama of Royal Terrace, Edinburgh, reaching from Carlton Terrace in the east (extreme left), to Greenside Church in the west (extreme right) — this is probably the longest Georgian terrace in Europe, a straight, continuous structure measuring 360 metres from east to west.

40 Royal Terrace, the first house to be built in 1821, an example of a two-storey townhouse (with basement and attic) in a section without Greek columns

Playfair hoped to attract "fashionable and wealthy people" to Calton Hill,[8] but almost immediately he encountered competition from new developments to the western end of the New Town, in particular the Moray Estate.[2] Building began in Royal Terrace in 1821, but was not completed until 1859–60. This was in contrast to Regent and Carlton Terraces which were completed in the 1830s.

Royal Terrace is a continuous straight structure of about 360 metres, reputedly the longest Georgian terrace in Europe.[9] It is 30 metres longer than the Royal York Crescent (1791–1820) in Clifton, Bristol.[10] The Moray Estate claim a single built-up environment of nearly 600 metres,[11][12] but unlike Royal Terrace, this is a series of unbroken streets rather than a single entity.

Royal Terrace was known in Edinburgh as 'Whisky Row', supposedly because merchants living there had an unobstructed view of their ships coming into Leith Harbour. In fact, some wine merchants did come to live in the terrace, including John Crabbie (1806–1891), founder of John Crabbie & Company, responsible for Crabbie's Ginger Wine, who lived in number 22 from 1861 to 1891.[13]

The terrace is now in both commercial and residential use. This includes six hotels, including the Crowne Plaza that occupies the central colonnaded section (numbers 17 to 22),[14] 24 Royal Terrace - a boutique art hotel, [15] a restaurant, the Finnish Consulate,[16] the Ukrainian Community Centre,[17] offices, including those of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the arts-supporting Dunard Fund, and rental accommodation. Most of the former townhouses have been split into flats.

Royal Terrace Mews, originally the stables for the street

• Carlton Terrace, Edinburgh
• Regent, Royal and Carlton Terrace Gardens
• London Road Gardens
• Calton Hill
• Regent Terrace
• William Henry Playfair

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Royal Terrace, Edinburgh.

• Mitchell, Anne (1993), "The People of Calton Hill", pp 73–98 (chapter 4) Mercat Press, James Thin, Edinburgh, ISBN 1-873644-18-3

• Regent, Royal, and Carlton Terraces & Mews Association (RRCTMA) official website