Located to the northwest of Buccleuch Place in Edinburgh and just to the north of the Meadows, is George Square. Originally laid out in 1766 by James Brown, a speculative builder, it was the first new development outside the overcrowded Old Town. Its construction began just a year before the New Town, on the opposite side of the city, whose grand architecture quickly eclipsed Brown's more modest scheme. Many famous individuals lived here; the boyhood home of Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832) was at No. 25 and Thomas Carlyle (1795 - 1881) courted Jane Welsh at No. 22, both buildings are still extant. Artist Waller Hugh Paton (1828-95) lived at No. 14 and anatomist Sir John Struthers (1823-99) had his home at No. 15. Lord Braxfield (1722-99), model for Robert Louis Stevenson's Weir of Hermiston, had a house here, as did Henry Dundas, Viscount Melville (1742 - 1811), his nephew Robert Dundas of Arniston (1758 - 1819), Admiral Duncan, Viscount Camperdown (1731 - 1804), Elizabeth Leveson-Gower, the Countess of Sutherland (1765 - 1839), Henry Erskine, Lord Advocate (1746 - 1817), and lexicographer Rev. John Jamieson (1759 - 1838).
The original terraced houses can be viewed on the complete W side, with a further fragment remaining in the NE corner. Elsewhere the square was decimated in the 1960s through the construction of tasteless concrete monstrosities for the University of Edinburgh. Enormously controversial at the time, this was widely regarded as University's most disgraceful act against the architecture of the city.
The University had first purchased property in the Square in 1914 and began a major programme of redevelopment in 1949, with the noted architect Sir Basil Spence (1907-76) appointed in 1954 to devise a masterplan and design several of the buildings, while Percy Johnson-Marshall (1915-93), later a Professor in the university, was responsible for the detailed planning. In the University's defence, their actions had been encouraged by the City Fathers who were promoting a scheme to bring an elevated urban motorway through the Meadows and planned an associated shopping development intended to link to the University's campus. Plans were delayed while battles were fought with conservationists, but eventually the new university buildings went up; the David Hume Tower (1963, now known as 40 George Square), the Appleton Tower (1965), the William Robertson Building (now referred to as 50 George Square), the University Main Library (1967, regarded as one of the finest buildings of its type in Europe), the Adam Ferguson Building (1970) and the George Square Theatre (1970, now the Gordon Aikman Lecture Theatre). The only remaining 19th-century building in George Square is the former George Watson's Ladies College (1876) now, like all of the other buildings, occupied by a University department. The remaining Georgian properties in the square were Category A-listed in 1970, with the David Hume Tower and the University Library being given the same designation in 2006.
George Square Gardens are a substantial area of parkland occupying the centre of the Square. These have changed little over the years and are now open to the public and provide one of the venues for Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August. The Edinburgh Labyrinth is also located here, built by the University 2004-05 as a contemplative space and based on the Mediaeval labyrinth laid in the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France. An interesting historical monument, the Swedish Runestone, is located behind the 50 George Square.
