The Waterloo Hotel is a historical

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

located on Waterloo Place in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, Scotland. It was the first large scale purpose built hotel in Edinburgh, trading from 1819 to 1898.

The Waterloo Hotel, Tavern and Coffee House

The

category A listed This is a list of Category A listed buildings in Scotland, which are among the listed buildings of the United Kingdom. For a fuller list, see the pages linked on List of listed buildings in Scotland. Key The organization of the lists in th ...

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

building was designed by the Scottish architect

Archibald Elliot Archibald Elliot (August 1761 – 16 June 1823) was a Scottish architect based in Edinburgh. He had a very distinctive style, typified by square plans, concealed roofs, crenellated walls and square corner towers. All may be said to derive from ...

(1761-1823) and constructed between 1815 and 1819. It contained fifty bedrooms, a coffee room, three dining rooms and a large ballroom (). In the 1970s, long after the hotel ceased trading, the ballroom was demolished to accommodate an extension, but the

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

(domed window in the ceiling), which would have filled the ballroom with light, has been preserved and can still be seen on the 8th floor of the building.

Notable guests and events

* The Waterloo Hotel opened on Saturday 21 August 1819 to commemorate the visit of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. He was in the first carriage ever to travel down Waterloo Place. *

Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (13 March 1764 – 17 July 1845), known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807, was a British Whig politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1830 to 1834. He was a member of the nob ...

(Earl Grey) was given the Freedom of the City at a ceremony at the Waterloo Hotel in 1834. * A large-scale breakfast was held at the Waterloo Hotel in 1834 to celebrate abolition of slavery. * The Grand Caledondian Curling Club was formed during meetings at the Waterloo Hotel in 1838. *

Asa Gray Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His ''Darwiniana'' was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually excl ...

, the famous American botanist and friend of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

, stayed in the hotel in 1839 and described it as 'the finest hotel I have seen yet' in his journal. *

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

stayed at the hotel many times during 1861, at the time he was writing

Great Expectations ''Great Expectations'' is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. It depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip (Great Expectations), Pip (the book is a ''bildungsroman''; a coming-of-age story). It ...

and

A Tale of Two Cities ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a historical novel published in 1859 by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the ...

. Evidence can be found of this in letters written by Dickens while staying at the hotel. * In 1898 the hotel ceased trading and was turned into offices. It remained as offices for the next 120 years, until it was re-developed by Apex Hotels in 2009 as the Apex Waterloo Place Hotel.Apex Waterloo Place Hotel
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Notes and references

External links

RCAHMS Site Record
{{coord, 55, 57, 14, N, 3, 11, 13, W, region:GB, display=title Hotel buildings completed in 1819 Hotels in Edinburgh New Town, Edinburgh Category A listed buildings in Edinburgh Listed hotels in Scotland Defunct hotels in Scotland 1898 disestablishments in the United Kingdom 2009 establishments in Scotland 1819 establishments in Scotland Hotels established in 1819 Hotels established in 2009