Welcome to Heriot Row

A warm welcome to the history of Heriot Row.

Heriot Row is one of Edinburgh's most attractive streets. It is a long graceful terrace of beautiful grey stone houses dating from the very early 1800s. The houses face south and look out over the mature trees of Queen Street Gardens towards Edinburgh's First New Town. Its palace fronts, polished ashlar facades, astragals and fanlights, decorative ironwork and celebrated lamp posts delight the eye.

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. So 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 almost every house has interesting tales to tell of cultured and enterprising residents, novel commercial uses 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 springs from a community celebration of the 200th 'birthday' of the eastern section of the street. This 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 famous residents or stories from the street, or house number, through related maps and images, or an index of categories.

We would love to get more information! If you know things about Heriot Row - particularly the section to the west of Howe Street, which we haven't yet covered in so much detail - do let us know, using the contact icon at the top of the page.