Edinburgh New Town

Edinburgh New Town is presented through two contrasting encounters: as part of John Rebus’s wandering drive through Edinburgh and as the elevated, exclusive setting of The Eyrie. Its streets connect to the city’s movement, while the restaurant above them occupies a world of carefully restricted access and privilege.

Setting and Position

At midday, Edinburgh Castle seems to cast a shadow across the expanse of the New Town, though the shadow cannot reach The Eyrie. The restaurant occupies the entire top floor of a Georgian hotel in the heart of the district, set apart from the human bustle of the city centre. The description makes the New Town both a substantial urban landscape and the location of an enclave raised above ordinary street life.

Streets and Movement

One evening, still numb and bored with television, Rebus leaves his flat in Marchmont without a real destination. He drives into the centre of town and crosses to the New Town before stopping at a petrol station in Canonmills to fill the car and buy a torch, batteries, and chocolate. The sequence places the district within an open-ended journey rather than making it a destination in itself: Rebus moves through the city, carrying the practical supplies that will accompany his later investigation.

The Eyrie and Social Contrast

The New Town’s streets are not quiet. Traffic passes steadily, and finding a parking space is difficult; Rebus simply stops on a double yellow line outside the hotel, disregarding the doorman’s warnings about wardens and fines. He takes the lift four floors up to lunch with Farmer Watson, anticipating that the businessmen will bore him but that the meal will be good. His confidence with the wine list gives the visit a wry edge: in a place defined by exclusivity and expense, he intends to make the occasion costly for his companions. The restaurant’s advance bookings—rumoured to extend twelve months for lunch and eight to ten weeks for dinner—further mark the distance between its cultivated exclusiveness and the traffic-bound streets below.