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This hotel is on the north side of Edinburgh Waverley station. Long known as the North British or NB, for the North British Railway Company which owned the station, it was renamed The Balmoral in 1991. (This has led to the side wall of the station being referred to as the 'Balmoral' side, the south side is the 'Klondyke'.)

The hotel, viewed from Princes Street, is six storeys high (the top is the attic). From the station it is ten storeys high. It is built around a central courtyard. The building is dominated by its clock tower on the north side of 190 ft, the clock famously set slightly fast (3 minutes) to hurry passengers to their trains. (It is usually set to the correct time once a year, for Hogmanay.)

The architect was William Hamilton Beattie, known for his design of 'Jenners', the Jenners Department Store on the north side of Princes Street.

The hotel was sold by the British Transport Hotels in 1981. It is now the The Balmoral Hotel .

The hotel has long enjoyed a healthy competition with The Caledonian Hotel, formerly at the Edinburgh Princes Street terminus of the Caledonian Railway, at the west end of Princes Street.

Prior to opening this block had a number of small hotels and taverns and the goods yard at the east end of Edinburgh Canal Street.

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