The year was 1828.

Finally, the renowned architect William H. Playfair saw his design for St Stephen's Church take shape.

It had been a late addition to Edinburgh's New Town, a project begun in 1776 to a plan by the 22 year old James Craig.

The New Town offered Edinburgh's elite something unheard of, grand residences and neatly symmetrical streets, in stark contrast to the cramped medieval Old Town.

Twelve years after St Stephen's Church opened its imposing doors, the New Town was complete. Well, almost complete.

Eighteen decades passed. Playfair's tower - all 162 feet of it - dominated the Stockbridge skyline. However, the land to the east still remained undeveloped, the last original gap site in Edinburgh's New Town.


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