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Edinburgh, 42, 43, 44 Princes Street, Old Waverley Hotel
Hotel (19th Century)
Site Name Edinburgh, 42, 43, 44 Princes Street, Old Waverley Hotel
Classification Hotel (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) 42 - 44 Princes Street; New Waverley Temperence Hotel; Cranston's; House Of Bewlay
Canmore ID 115088
Site Number NT27SE 1096
NGR NT 25601 73967
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/115088
- Council Edinburgh, City Of
- Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District City Of Edinburgh
- Former County Midlothian
NT27SE 1096 25601 73967
REFERENCE - Scottish Record office
42 Princes Street, Receipted accounts for mason, slater and plumber work at Miss Bruce's house. Alexander Laing [D.1823] Mason-Architects.
1798-1801 GD152/216/2/Bundle 1/16, 19 and 27
[? For 42 Princes Street] or [?Kinghorn]. William Braidwood and Son at the Gilded Vase, 6 Hunters Square, Carron and Ironmongery warehouse. 16 ballusters for a stair 98lb 1.0.5 [pounds]. Receipted account-addressed to Baillie Hutton.
1797 GD152/216/2/Bundle 2/14
(Undated) information in NMRS.
Project (1997)
The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (http://www.pmsa.org.uk/) set up a National Recording Project in 1997 with the aim of making a survey of public monuments and sculpture in Britain ranging from medieval monuments to the most contemporary works. Information from the Edinburgh project was added to the RCAHMS database in October 2010 and again in 2012.
The PMSA (Public Monuments and Sculpture Association) Edinburgh Sculpture Project has been supported by Eastern Photocolour, Edinburgh College of Art, the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, Historic Scotland, the Hope Scott Trust, The Old Edinburgh Club, the Pilgrim Trust, the RCAHMS, and the Scottish Archive Network.
Field Visit (6 September 2001)
Portrait busts in medallions above windows of third floor of Princes Street. The east end bust is worn away; the centre bust is of a bearded male in three-quarters profile facing left (to his right); in the west end bay is a bald male with a moustache; in the corner bay is a male with a long beard facing front.
On the triangular pediment above the first floor window above the main entrance is a stork standing on one leg. Clasped in its raised foot is a rock (?).
There is decorative carving (foliage) between the first and second floors of the corner bay and South St David Street.
The hotel was built in two stages, the first in 1876, the second in 1883-4. According to an article by 'A.N.R.' in the Edinburgh Evening News 6 January 1951, the portrait heads are 'Combe, the phrenologist, Scott, Gough, and Sir William Chambers. It is strange that the last displaced Shakespeare who was on the walls of the Old Waverley when the busts were first executed in 1876.'
The Builder of 2 August 1884 reports that 'The ornamentation is crude and unsatisfactory, and some of it, after execution, has been cut off.' No details are given however.
Inspected By : T.S.
Inscriptions : On ribbon below stork:
THOU SHALT WANT ERE I WANT
On shield above ground floor east end bay: RC (entwined)
Below 1st floor window above entrance (incised letters): ESTABLISHED 1845
Signatures : None Visible
Design period : 1876-1884
Information from Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA Work Ref : EDIN0951)
