The Georgian House, Edinburgh

The Georgian House is an 18th-century townhouse situated at No. 7 Charlotte Square in the heart of the historic New Town of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has been restored and furnished by the National Trust for Scotland, and is operated as a popular tourist attraction, with over 40,000 visitors annually.

In 1766 a young unknown architect named James Craig won the competition to design a layout for Edinburgh's first New Town. By this time in the mid-18th century Edinburgh had become extremely overcrowded and the rich and poor alike were living in very close quarters in cramped conditions in the tenements of the medieval Old Town. The New Town was to be constructed to the north of the Old Town, and the intention was that it would remain a strictly residential development, a privileged enclave for the wealthy away from the squalor found in the Old Town. Today visitors can experience what life was like in the Old Town by visiting Gladstone's Land on the Royal Mile, which is a restored tenement building set up as the dwelling of a 17th-century merchant.

Craig's design for the New Town formed a grid-like pattern consisting three principal streets and two large squares with gardens for the residents use. The main thoroughfare was George Street (named after King George III), right at the centre of the development running east to west; this was the only main street to have houses constructed on both sides. Princes Street (named in honour of the King's sons) which ran parallel to George Street was designed as a terrace (meaning that it had houses on only one side) overlooking what was to become Prince's Street Gardens and facing the Old Town lay to the south of the grid. Queen Street (named for Queen Charlotte, who was the wife of George III) ran parallel to George Street on the north side of the New Town. It also had houses on one side only and again gardens were laid out for the use of the residents of the street (these gardens are still private today).

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