It is important to know the date your property was built so that you can begin searching the Street Directories from the appropriate year. Your title deeds or other documents in your possession may help date the property. If not, and you do not already know the build date date of your property, this section offers a number of ways through which you may be able to find that information.
If you cannot find the date, the Edinburgh maps may give you a rough idea and then you can check through Street Directories from a few years before the estimated build date until you arrive at the first mention of the address.
Historic Environment Scotland
Historic Environment Scotland records all listed buildings and as this includes the majority of the New Town properties a search in their website may provide detail on the date of a house and its builder, etc.
http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designations
Insert the street you are looking to find out about. Example here ‘Abercromby Place’.
Search brings up a list as below.
Click on the relevant house number and, hopefully, this will provide helpful information on the date the building was built and other background information.
Canmore Database
It also can be worth searching the Canmore database which contains information and images related to buildings.
It is worth searching under all three search options - Images, Sites and Collections. This example is, again, a search for Abercromby Place under Images.
and here under Sites
Go to Step Three