Image: The Caledonian, Edinburgh by Tharnton345, 2008, sourced from Wikimedia Commons and licensed under Public domain.
A red-sandstone railway hotel preserves the monumental entrance screen of the vanished Princes Street Station at the west end of the city centre.
Quick facts
- Date
- Station entrance built 1890–1893; hotel completed 1899–1903; later additions
- Architect / designer
- Peddie and Kinnear; J. M. Dick Peddie and Washington Browne
- Type
- Red-sandstone former railway hotel in an elaborate Flemish Renaissance style
- Designation
- Listed building, Category A (LB29524)
- OS grid reference
- NT 24684 73590
Architecture and continuing use
The former station entrance and hotel form a V-shaped composition of polished red sandstone. Giant columns, tiered gables, curved pediments, dormers and obelisks create a richly modelled frontage beneath Edinburgh Castle.
Its story
Peddie and Kinnear designed the station entrance in the early 1890s. J. M. Dick Peddie and Washington Browne incorporated it into the hotel completed in 1903; the station closed in 1965 and was later demolished.
Why it is included
It is a major surviving witness to Edinburgh’s competing railway termini and continues its original hotel use after the station around it disappeared.
What to notice
- The surviving triple-arched station entrance within the hotel frontage.
- The red sandstone and tiered Flemish Renaissance gables.
- The building’s visual dialogue with the Castle and the west end of Princes Street.
Reading the surroundings
This is a working hotel. Public hospitality spaces operate under the hotel’s current arrangements, while guest floors and other areas are private.
Timeline
- Station entrance built 1890–1893 Peddie and Kinnear designed the station entrance in the early 1890s.
- Present Curio Collection by Hilton hotel with accommodation, dining, spa and event facilities.
What we know — and what remains uncertain
The building expanded after the station closed, and surviving railway fabric is integrated with later hotel accommodation.
Sources & further reading
- Historic Environment Scotland: The Caledonian Edinburgh, LB29524 — Designation category, mapped location, construction phases, fabric, authorship and architectural interest.
- Hilton: The Caledonian Edinburgh — Current hotel name, operation, location and facilities.
- Hilton: The Caledonian hotel history — Railway-hotel origins, station closure and later hotel adaptations.
Location
OS grid reference NT 24684 73590 · Location confidence: High: the statutory designation supplies a mapped National Grid Reference and a current official operator, responsible public body or institutional source confirms the Place relationship and present identity. · Select the marker to open its satellite view in Google Maps. On desktop, drag Pegman (the yellow figure) onto a blue road. On mobile, turn on the Street View layer and tap a blue road. Other photo markers may be user-contributed.
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