West Bow, Victoria Street, Edinburgh City Centre, Lothian, Scotland, UK

VICTORIA Street with its historic architecture, elegant curve and colourful shop fronts is one of the city’s most picturesque locations. In recent times however, it has been forced to ward off the threat of destruction. Before the creation of Victoria Street and Johnston Terrace in the early 1800s, the steep, awkward incline of the old West Bow was the only feasible passage for those wishing to access the Lawnmarket and Edinburgh Castle from the west. The old West Bow was a precipitous, narrow Z-shaped street linking the Grassmarket with Castlehill. Its path is somewhat preserved today by the steps which cut through Victoria Street towards the Upper Bow. Prior to the 19th century it was considered to be one of the most important roads in Edinburgh, despite its reputation as one of the most difficult to negotiate if travelling by carriage. Many of the oldest buildings in the city were contained along the old West Bow. An abundance of timber-fronted houses had sprung up over the centuries, many of them resembling upside-down pyramids due to the manner in which the floors increasingly protruded out as they progressed upwards. As such, the distance between the top floors of some of the houses on either side of the street was so little that it is said neighbours could enjoy ‘the pleasure of tea drinking, without the trouble of leaving their respective abodes’. The old West Bow was radically transformed between 1829-34 as part of town planner Thomas Hamilton’s 1827 Improvement Act which was set up to provide better approaches into the Old Town from the west and south. The eventual design featured a gentle, curved link from the Grassmarket up to the newly-created George IV Bridge. It was originally named Bow Street, remaining so until 1837 when the arrival to the British throne of Queen Victoria was suitably honoured by the city. More at https://www.scotsman.com/news-2-15012/lost-edinburgh-the-creation-of-victoria-street-1-3019825