119 at the Balmoral Hotel

The huge structure now called the Balmoral, formerly the North British

Hotel, formed part of the new North Bridge following demolition of the

Georgian building on the same site - a far more modest building, classical

in proportion.

 

The current maginificent oppulence was presented in a competition by W.

Hamilton Beattie in 1895. It was completed in 1902 and it's bulbous 58m

clock tower, probably Edinburgh's most famous landmark after the Castle and

Scott Monument, never fails to impress or shock depending on your point of

view!

 

Purist archictects and critics often deride it and sight the lack of need

for such a giant structure in an otherwise Georgian landscape around the

Capital's main street, of course surrounded by beauty from the early 1800's.

Yet it is revered all over the world (the clock tower is just out of the

photograph here but see picture 122 for a view from Princes Street).

 

Dr. Anderson of Edinburgh University has a personal dislike of it and preferred the original Georgian building, which in comparison was entirely modest in proportion on this corner of Princes Street and the North Bridge.

 

I think it is the recognised icon of Edinburgh everywhere and on television

news programmes public figures sit infront of the famous view of Edinburgh

with the Balmoral clock tower a symbol of pride and distinction. Not to have

this building would be like London without Big Ben, in my view.

88/144

Done