From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is divided into areas that generally encompass a park (sometimes known as "links"), a main local street (i.e. street of local retail shops), a high street (the historic main street, not always the same as the main local street, such as in Corstorphine) and residential buildings. In Edinburgh many residences are tenements, although the more southern and western parts of the city have traditionally been more affluent and have a greater number of detached and semi-detached villas.

Portobello and The Royal Burgh of Leith were formerly separate towns, but were merged with Edinburgh in 1896 and 1920 respectively. Leith still retains a very much separate identity, and the parliamentary constituency had to be renamed "Edinburgh North and Leith", to avoid offence to "Leithers".

The edges of these areas are generally defined by roads, though actual lines on the ground are very difficult to draw: most locals tend to have varying ideas, map makers are in equal disagreement and the postcode areas are of no real help at all, being skewed more by number of residents than for utility of naming areas. Estate agents are unsurprisingly generous in defining the areas of wealthy areas such as the New Town. In other cases some suburbs may be thought of as constituent parts of other suburbs, for example The Calders, which are considered either part of Wester Hailes, or separate. The size of the individual suburbs also varies widely.

The names of the areas are often chosen for the major road(s) in the area, although in some cases the opposite is true.

Please note that this list includes areas, such as South Queensferry, which are within the City of Edinburgh Council area, but are beyond more historic definitions of the city boundaries. Also, the list excludes areas such as Musselburgh (East Lothian), which although part of the same conurbation, are not within the City of Edinburgh.