Balmoral Hotel, 1 Princes Street, Edinburgh

Balmoral Hotel, 1 Princes Street, Edinburgh

The Balmoral Hotel is a five-storey hotel with mezzanine and attic storeys, built between 1896 and 1902 to designs by W Hamilton Beattie. It was stone-cleaned and substantially refurbished in 1988–91. The building has a quadrangular plan with four basement levels to the west and south, and is constructed of sandstone ashlar with Stuarts Granolithic fireproof construction. It is distinguished by an extravagant combination of French and Scottish architectural detailing and a dramatic 58-metre-high entrance tower that dominates the skyline.

The basement levels are exposed and channelled. The ground floor features channelled pilasters. Cill courses are continuous at the ground, first and second floors, with an advanced and crenellated apron course at the fifth floor. Moulded cornices separate the mezzanine from the first floor and the first from the second floor. A heavy stone-bracketed and dentilled cornice divides the third and fourth floors, styling the fourth floor as a classical attic, while a restrained entablature marks the wallhead. The first floor has blind balustraded balcony-aprons, and the second floor originally had strapwork balcony-aprons (now removed from the south and west elevations).

Windows at the ground, first and second floors are architraved, with keystoned round arches at intervals on the north, south and west elevations. The third floor has pilaster-flanked windows, and the fourth floor features predominantly round-arched and keystoned windows. All windows have stone mullions, with transoms and alternating segmental and regular pediments to the second floor. Most windows are bipartite. Two-storey pilasters divide bays and angles at the second and third floors, terminating in console brackets supporting the heavy cornice above. Broader pilasters mark every third bay and angle, featuring panelled bases and diamond-panelled shafts. Further enrichment appears in the tympana and double attic gableheads. Ball-finalled stone domes crown the corner towers.

The north elevation on Princes Street comprises nine bays, with the outer bays tripartite. The principal entrance is in a slightly advanced lower bay at the centre, which steps forward in angular ripples. Paired Ionic columns flank the entrance bay, carrying an entablature with triglyphs. The entrance features a broad, keystoned round arch with a tripartite timber door and semicircular fanlight, flanked by columns in a re-entrant angle. Reclining classical figure sculptures carved in the spandrels enhance the composition. The first floor displays paired, fluted Ionic columns flanking canted windows with single Ionic columns flanking the centre light; this canted window continues up to the third floor. The flanking bays contain three regular bays to left and right, with a secondary door to the outer left breaking the symmetry—an Ionic columned and pedimented doorpiece with triglyph frieze and semicircular fanlight over a corniced lintel. Dutch gabled ashlar dormerheads mark the fourth floor, with bipartite windows at the centre detailed as towerhead gables, and an NBR cipher carved in the tympanum, flanked by oculi. The outer bays feature bowed windows at ground and first floors with oval oculi to each face of the mezzanine. Single windows flank the bipartite windows, detailed as towerhead gables but with segmental broken pediments and crowned by regular pediments. The outer bays are crowned by large facetted domes with semicircular pedimented ashlar dormers to the attic and decorative ball finials. A stone balustrade fronts the basement area.

The entrance tower is square-plan and rises above the principal entrance from the fourth floor. It has a corbelled base with the fourth-floor parapet canted around, and angled fillets to the angles at the fourth floor. A bipartite window flanked by columns carries a cornice and segmental pediment cradling a keystoned oculus above a clasping rectangular pilaster-flanked panel with carved emblem. Pilastered angles feature a nookshaft in a filetted angle, with pilaster strips flanking narrow stair windows on the outer wallplane of each face. An arcaded corbel table rests on moulded brackets with boxed recesses to the frieze and dentilled cornice; corbelled angles with brackets carry polygonal cornices, waterspouts appear to each face and angle. The towerhead features Dutch gabled bays carrying large clock faces with Roman numerals, with carving in the gablehead pediment and finials. Polygonal turrets with heavy stone ogee-crown spires and finials mark the angles. A lead spire is truncated with a circular ring and light, topped by decorative ironwork.

The east elevation on North Bridge is detailed as the flanking bays of the north elevation, except for channelled pilasters dividing shopfronts at ground floor level. A glazed mezzanine features oculi to two bays of the outer right. Tall pedimented, key-blocked entrance bays occupy the centre, left and right, with oculi to the mezzanine. The first floor is detailed as the second floor minus pediments.

The west elevation follows the general scheme except that two basement floors adjoin Waverley Steps (listed with Waverley Station), with shops at the lower level. A four-bay gabled centre section is flanked by two-stage turrets at the fourth and attic floors, detailed as described above. A three-storey bowed oriel on consoled brackets with inward-canted windows occupies the centre, flanked by Ionic columns. A bowed oriel to the attic with an oculus above is flanked by polygonal tourelles and topped by a scrolled aedicule with an empty niche. Bowed oriels appear to the outer right and left, with those to the right and left at first and second floors, and that to the right featuring an oculus to the mezzanine at the first floor.

The south elevation is detailed as the west elevation except for two-storey oriels to the outer right and left at the first and second floors, with that to the right containing oculi to the mezzanine at the first floor. The exposed basement features single windows alternating with bipartites in groups running 3:3:6:3:3.

The interior preserves an Edwardian classical decorative scheme in the principal areas. Fluted Corinthian columns and pilasters ornament the entrance lobby, with a balustraded gallery to the mezzanine. Panelled dadoes and architraved doors feature throughout. Classical marble chimneypieces are present, along with ornate plasterwork and coffered ceilings (some partly disguising beams). The Palm Court has a curvilinear plan with bowed recesses and elaborate pedimented picture frames.

Plate glass is fitted to timber sash-and-case windows, with some plate glass casements to balcony areas and larger round-arched windows. The steep roof is covered with grey slates. Tall corniced ashlar stacks complete the composition.