Market Street Hotel

For fifty years Market Street had a derelict gap in it, on the slope where the Old Town comes down to Waverley, and this hotel now fills it. JMARCHITECTS faced it in cream stone from within 90 miles, matched to Edinburgh's old Craigleith sandstone, now rare. On the roof, grey metal gables fold over walls of glass, a sharper version of the crow-steps and turrets crowded behind. The atrium walls are stone too, cracked on purpose after the dried earth of the Nor' Loch, the water that once lay where Princes Street Gardens are now. A lift runs straight to reception on the seventh floor, beside the champagne lounge, so the first thing anyone checks into is the view: over the gardens to the Scott Monument and Calton Hill. The bedrooms are lined in oak, with sliding panels to close over tall windows, a quilted headboard in moss green and tartan on the back of a grey wool armchair, about as much Scotland as a bedroom needs.

Recommended for couples, since no room sleeps more than two, and for anyone arriving by train: Waverley is a minute's walk, and the Fruitmarket gallery is next door. The hotel keeps no pool, gym or spa and does no room service, leaving the days to the city, with the Royal Mile four minutes up the hill. Nor' Loft, open to non-residents too, serves caviar and small plates of Scottish ingredients and pours more than twenty champagnes by the glass, from Delouvin Nowack to Bollinger, until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Of the rooms, the Vistas are the ones to ask for: on the highest floors at the front, and guaranteed the New Town, so the view from the bar is still there in the morning.