The twelfth-century city walls, built to protect Edinburgh’s residents, constrained the outward expansion of the Old Town. As a consequence, houses grew upward, reaching dangerous heights at a time when building regulations were far from rigorous. The district’s rickety structures could easily exceed ten stories, each level protruding and looming over the one before, so that the tops of these ramshackle buildings blocked out the sunlight. Those who lived on the ground floors were the poorest residents. They were surrounded by cattle and by open sewers that overflowed with human excrement just
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Glad I didn't visit it during the 19th century.
