46 Princes Street, Edinburgh

The Old Waverley Hotel, located at 42, 43, and 44 Princes Street in Edinburgh, was designed by John Armstrong in 1883. This busy six-storey hotel, featuring a double attic, is built in a Free Renaissance style on a prominent corner site, with shops on the ground floor. The exterior is made of polished cream sandstone ashlar, accented by Peterhead granite shafts around the windows. There are remnants of pilastered corniced shopfronts. A small corner drum is topped with an engaged domed tempietto. The facades are framed by channelled pilaster strips, with polished granite at the ground level. The building has alternate bays that project slightly from the first to the fourth floors, creating a complex yet regular arrangement of trabeated, Venetian, and arcaded windows, which are topped with segmental pediments at the fifth floor. A modillioned cornice crowns the structure, which features a mansard roof with end pavilions, arched dormers on the first attic, and oculi on the second attic, although the brattishing has been lost. The Princes Street facade has eight bays, while the South St David Street side has six bays, with the northern bay bowing out and featuring ashlar attics.

The rear elevation is rendered and includes an open well and an applied iron fire escape. The windows are timber sash and case with plate glass, and the roof is covered with grey slates.

Inside, the hotel has undergone many alterations, but the Dining Room at the corner of the first floor remains, showcasing elaborate plasterwork and fluted Corinthian columns.