Introduction

A warm welcome to the history of Heriot Row.

The street is one of the most important in Edinburgh's New Town, the city's planned and phased expansion to the north, which coincided with the Scottish Enlightenment. Heriot Row was the first street in its second phase, now known as the Second New Town.

The buildings in the street are A-listed. That means that they are classified by the government as of national or international significance for their architecture, history or both. The street also sits within an Outstanding Conservation Area and a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site, meaning it is graded at the highest level in all the recognised national and international designations.

Heriot Row is much more than a row of fine-looking houses. Several of its first residents were significant figures from Scotland's 18th century enlightenment. It has provided homes for many talented people over the last two hundred years. Its most famous resident was writer and adventurer Robert Louis Stevenson, but many houses have interesting tales to tell of cultured and enterprising residents and past street life.

Heriot Row is home still to families and businesses who cherish its past while enjoying it as a place to live and work in the heart of a great city. This website sprang from a community celebration of the 200th birthday of the street. It led us to share our enthusiasm and knowledge with a wider audience of our fellow citizens and visitors to Edinburgh.

You are very welcome to browse the site. You can do that by going to our history pages, famous residents, stories from the street, house numbers and related maps and images.

We would love to get more information! If you know interesting facts about Heriot Row which are not here let us know.

Many people helped us with the history, images and recollections shown on this site. You can see some of them listed in our acknowledgements page.