A House Through Time: Edinburgh — What This Calton Hill Home Teaches Us About Hosting

We went to hear David Olusoga in conversation at Fringe by the Sea in North Berwick, and now we're glued to the new series of A House Through Time on BBC Two. If you haven't seen it yet, Series 6 is set in Edinburgh — the first time the show has gone to Scotland — and it follows the residents of a 250-year-old house on Calton Hill. It's brilliant telly. But it's also something more than that for those of us who host in this city.

The house was built in 1765. Five floors of solid Edinburgh stone, sandwiched between the medieval Old Town and the Georgian New Town. Olusoga describes Edinburgh as a "medieval Manhattan" — a vertical city of tenements built upward because the city walls left no room to spread out. He's right. If you've ever carried a suitcase up four flights to a Royal Mile flat, you know exactly what he means.

The residents Olusoga uncovers are extraordinary. French prisoners of war. Bagpipe makers. A spy. A sculptor who created the famous statue of Sir Walter Scott that still stands in the city. A woman who ran what Edinburgh police records delicately call "a house of ill-fame." Folk singers who played with The Proclaimers. One house, two and a half centuries, and a cast of characters that reads like a novel.

One of the earliest tenants was at the centre of one of the strangest trials in Edinburgh's history — a crime so infamous it was depicted in engravings sold on the streets. Another resident took up arms in a volunteer regiment during the years after the French Revolution, when the middle classes saw revolution lurking in every shadow.

But here's what struck me most, and it's something every host should think about.

Olusoga talks about how 18th and 19th century homes are "incredibly adaptable." They've survived electricity, indoor plumbing, central heating, the internet, and Airbnb. The house on Calton Hill was nearly demolished during the "comprehensive redevelopment" craze of the 1950s–70s, when thousands of beautiful Georgian and Victorian buildings across Britain were torn down for motorways and car parks. It survived. And now it's one of the most historically rich addresses in Edinburgh.

That survival matters to us as hosts. Because when guests stay in an Edinburgh tenement — in a building that's stood for 200 years — they're not just renting a flat. They're stepping into a story. The creaky floorboards, the thick stone walls, the tall windows that rattle in the wind. Those aren't flaws. They're the patina of a building that has lived.

Houses have longer lives than we do*, Olusoga says. *No matter how many years we live in them, our time there is a single chapter in their far longer story.

That's a powerful idea for hosting. When you welcome someone into your space, you're not just providing a bed. You're inviting them into a building that has been home to dozens of lives before them — and will be home to dozens more after. The best hosts lean into that. They tell guests about the building's history. They point out original features. They weave the story of the house into the story of the stay.

Here in Edinburgh, that story is everywhere. Calton Hill, where Olusoga's house stands, is a five-minute walk from the Playhouse, the Festival Theatre, and half the Fringe venues in the city. Your guests are sleeping in buildings that watched the Enlightenment happen. That survived two world wars. That housed festival performers long before Airbnb existed.

So here's my challenge to you: what's your house's story? Who lived there before you? What was the building originally used for? Even a little digging — old maps, local history archives, a chat with a long-time neighbour — can uncover something remarkable. And that remarkable something becomes part of your guest's experience.

A House Through Time proves that every building has a story worth telling. The question is whether you're telling it to your guests.

Watch A House Through Time: Edinburgh on BBC Two or catch up on BBC iPlayer:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002zk1t

Read David Olusoga's piece in The Guardian on why houses with long histories are magical:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/aug/12/a-house-through-time-bbc-david-olusoga-home-history-show-gripped-uk

Explore Edinburgh's building history through the Edinburgh City Archives and the National Library of Scotland:

https://www.nls.uk

If you're hosting in Edinburgh and want to help guests explore the city's living history, Botanical Path Edinburgh is a lovely walking guide app that connects visitors with the green spaces and hidden paths of the city — including routes around Calton Hill and the Old Town. It's a great addition to any guest welcome book.

This post is part of our Superhost blog series from the4pegs.com — practical hosting tips, Edinburgh stories, and design inspiration for short-term rental hosts.