Looking Back: Waverley Train Station

Waverley Station has exsisted in some capacity in the city since 1847. A landmark, the station has a long history.

Steam trains at Waverley Station with Waverley bridge and North British Hotel (now the Balmoral )in the background

The original Edinburgh to Glasgow line had its terminus at Haymarket, opening in 1842. The Princes Street Proprietors had spent large amounts of money turning the “filthy and offensive bog” that was Nor Loch into the Princes Street Gardens we know now, so strongly protested the plan to have an “inoffensive” railway line through them.

But as railway mania set in, the association was finally able to reach an agreement with the government, with walls and embankments in the park to conceal the line.

The first official opening of the station was in April 1866.

2 elephants from Princes International Circus arrive at Waverley Station, Edinburgh.

Like other large railway stations of the era, the railway company constructed a grand station hotel beside their station. The North British Hotel opened in 1902, and elevators took passengers from the hotel lobby down to the station platforms. Now known as the Balmoral Hotel, the station entrance has been long closed.

Princes Mall, formerly called the Waverley Shopping Centre, which occupies a the former Waverley Market, which was a live cattle market, nestling between Waverley Station, Waverley Bridge, and Princes Street, opened in 1985. This mall has benefited from the installation of escalators on the Waverley Steps to Princes Street in 2011.