Princes Street Station

Edinburgh Princes Street
Waldorf Astoria Edinburgh - The Caledonian is the main surviving part of the former station complex
Location
Place	Edinburgh
Area	Edinburgh
Operations
Original company	Caledonian Railway
Post-grouping	LMS
Platforms	7
History
2 May 1870	Temporary wooden station opened
1890	Partly destroyed by fire & building work on permanent station started
1893	Permanent station brought into use
1903	Hotel added
6 September 1965	Station closed
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z

Princes Street Station was a mainline railway station which stood at the west end of Princes Street, in Edinburgh, Scotland, for almost 100 years. Temporary stations were opened in 1848 and 1870, with construction of the main station commencing in the 1890s. The station was closed completely in 1965 and largely demolished in 1969-70. Only its hotel remains, but it is no longer in railway ownership.

In April 1847, the foundation stone for the Caledonian Railway company's Edinburgh station was ceremonially laid. Designed by William Tite, the station was to be a large Italianate structure. Due to the railway company's lack of funds this was not built and when the first services arrived in February 1848 there was only a temporary station with basic facilities, called Lothian Road Station from its location on that street.

By 1870, with increasing traffic, it was decided to build a new station slightly further north, still on Lothian Road but nearer Princes Street. Renamed Princes Street Station, it was opened in May 1870. It was built of timber with a pitched, slated roof. In June 1890, the building, which had been called the "wooden shanty", suffered a major blaze.

Due to further increases in traffic, plans had already been made for a new station and between 1890 and 1893 a grand station with seven platforms and an 850 ft long bayed roof was erected. Initially it had its own power station, to the west of the station in Rutland Court, to power its lighting. Parcels and goods were dealt with at the nearby Lothian Road station.

Waldorf Astoria Edinburgh - The Caledonian (originally opened as Princes Street Station Hotel), a grand railway hotel, was started in 1899, above the main three archway entrance of the station, and opened in 1903. It was designed by Edinburgh architects, Peddie and Washington Browne. The main pedestrian entrance to the station became the right hand arch of the original three while vehicular access was by way of Rutland Street. Both the station and the hotel were built in red sandstone in common with most Caledonian Railway buildings.