New Town

250 years ago, Edinburgh launched a competition to design a 'New Town' for the Scottish capital. The city desperately needed an upgrade - it was overcrowded, filthy and crumbling. With Scotland a partner in the new United Kingdom, it needed a capital to be proud of. At the same time, Edinburgh was seen as the intellectual capital of Europe - with Adam Smith, David Hume and other figures of the 'Scottish Enlightenment' creating an explosion of creative ideas that would change the world. The winning plan by James Craig was a masterpiece of Georgian city planning that reflected these Enlightenment ideas. This film tells the story of how the plan was made real - becoming the most ambitious building project in Britain, and transforming Edinburgh into the most perfect Georgian city on Earth.