Designed as part of James Craig’s New Town plan in 1767, Rose Street was named after the national flower of England, a conscious pairing with Thistle Street. In the 19th century, Rose Street gained a reputation as a seedy backwater, not a place for the respectable classes to be seen after dark… By the 1960s this had started to change, as tenement flats gave ways to antique shops and boutiques. In 1973 the transformation was completed as the section between Castle Street and Frederick Street became the first pedestrianised street in the city.
In the 1950s and 60s Rose Street became well-known as the haunt of a new wave of Scottish poets.
Writers such as Hugh MacDiarmid and Robert Garioch gathered with their friends for lively debate, in places such as Milne’s Bar, the Abbotsford and the Café Royal. They often wrote in Scots or Gaelic to revive a distinctly Scottish literary style.
Rose Street is a significant surviving part of the original fabric of Edinburgh’s New Town, one of the most important and best preserved examples of urban planning in Britain.
In 1830 McVitie’s provision shop opened at No.129 Rose Street, establishing the famous firm of biscuit manufacturers.
One of the first fire stations in the country was set up at No.66 Rose Street in 1824. Edinburgh was the first place in the UK to establish a proper fire service, organised by City Firemaster James Braidwood. The Rose Street station was to cover the New Town district, with a team of 12 firemen equipped with a hand cart.
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