Edinburgh

The National Archives of Scotland (NAS) is the previous name of the National Records of Scotland (NRS), and are the national archives of Scotland, based in Edinburgh. The NAS claims to have one of the most varied collection of archives in Europe. It is the main archive for sources of the history of Scotland as an independent state (see Kingdom of Scotland), her role in the British Isles and the links between Scotland and many other countries over the centuries. The NAS changed its name from the Scottish Record Office on 7 January 1999 and is both an associated department and Executive Agency of the Scottish Government, headed by the Keeper of the Records of Scotland. The agency is responsible to the Scottish Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Culture. Its antecedents date back to the 13th century. It is responsible for selecting, preserving, and promoting and making available the national archives of Scotland. It also has a role in records management more generally. The National Archives of Scotland is based at three locations in Edinburgh: HM General Register House with New Register House (open to the public) and West Register House in the city centre, and Thomas Thomson House in the Sighthill area of the city which is the main repository and also houses a conservation department and other offices. Access to the archives is open to members of the public. On 1 April 2011, NAS, as a governmental body, was merged with the General Register Office for Scotland to form National Records of Scotland. The term National Archives of Scotland is still sometimes employed to refer to the archives (the records collections) themselves.

General Register House is an Adam style neoclassical building on Princes Street, Edinburgh, purpose built by Robert Adam between 1774 and 1788 as the headquarters of the National Archives of Scotland. It is a Category A listed building.

The Balmoral Hotel, originally built as the North British (Railway Station) Hotel, is a luxury hotel and landmark in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located in the heart of the city at the east end of Princes Street, the main shopping street beneath the Edinburgh Castle rock, and the southern edge of the New Town. It is accessed from Princes Street, on its north side, and flanked by North Bridge and Waverley Steps. The latter gives pedestrian access to Waverley Station to the south, to which in was formerly linked.

The General Post Office (GPO) is a former post office building in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was built 1861–65 on the site of the Old Theatre Royal, between Waterloo Place and North Bridge, Edinburgh, to the design of architect and Clerk of Works for Scotland, Robert Matheson. In 1861, Albert, Prince Consort laid the foundation stone. The ceremony took place on the same day as the first stone was laid for the new Royal Museum of Scotland (now the National Museum). The GPO adjoined the offices of the Inland Revenue on Waterloo Place and housed offices for other public bodies, including the Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland and the Scottish Meteorological Society. The new building replaced the post office built 1815–19 on Waterloo Place beside Regent Bridge, and it was twice extended to meet increasing volumes of demand, first from 1890 by Walter W. Robertson and then 1908–09 by William Thomas Oldrieve. In 2000 the interior was removed, to be replaced by commercial office space, leaving only the High Renaissance-style facade.

Waverley Steps is a stair link of unique character linking Princes Street to Waverley station, an essential pedestrian route in the centre of Edinburgh.

The Court of the Lord Lyon (the Lyon Court) is a standing court of law which regulates heraldry in Scotland. The Lyon Court maintains the register of grants of arms, known as the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland, as well as records of genealogies. The Lyon Court is a public body, and the fees for grants of arms are paid to HM Treasury. It is headed by the Lord Lyon King of Arms, who must be legally qualified, as he has criminal jurisdiction in heraldic matters, and the court is fully integrated into the Scottish legal system, including having a dedicated prosecutor, known in Scotland as a procurator fiscal. Its equivalent in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, in terms of awarding arms, is the College of Arms, which is a royal corporation and not a court of law. The High Court of Chivalry is a civil court in England and Wales with jurisdiction over cases dealing with heraldry.

The Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway was a railway company formed in 1836 to connect the city of Edinburgh with the harbours on the Firth of Forth. When the line connected to Granton, the company name was changed to the Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway. It opened part of its route in 1846, but reaching the centre of Edinburgh involved the difficult construction of a long tunnel; this was opened in 1847. It was on a steep incline and was worked by rope haulage. The rope-worked tunnel proved a major handicap, and after the company had been taken over by the North British Railway, a longer but more convenient route was built round the eastern edge of the city at Abbeyhill. It opened in 1868. By the end of the nineteenth century the Leith station was unsuitable for the developing suburban passenger traffic, and a new branch to Leith Central station was built, opening in 1903. All of the original route has been dismantled, except part of the line from Piershill to a waste consolidation depot at Powderhall which remained in use until it closed in 2016.

The Glasshouse hotel in Edinburgh opened in June 2003 and is located on Greenside Place, next to the Playhouse Theatre. The hotel is on the edge of Edinburgh's New Town build into the 160-year-old façade of Lady Glenorchy Church. The hotel has 77 bedrooms (of which 20 are suites, all named after a specific brand of whisky) and two acre roof garden, overlooking Calton Hill.

St James Quarter is a large galleria retail shopping centre and residential development in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is situated in the east end of the New Town.

The St. James Centre, later re-branded as St. James Shopping, was a shopping centre next to the former New St. Andrew House office building for the Scottish Office, in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was initially designed by Burke Martin Partnership in 1964 but was completed by architects Ian G Cooke and Hugh Martin of Hugh Martin & Partners after Martin's partnership with Ian Burke ceased in 1969.The Brutalist architecture of the government offices, atop the shopping centre, made it one of Edinburgh's most unloved buildings, but the shopping centre was a popular and busy shopping location. All of the shops in the centre, with the exception of the John Lewis department store, closed in 2016 in preparation for demolition, which has since commenced; work on extensions to John Lewis has also begun. The centre had over 60 stores, cafés, restaurants and a food court. In the 2010s, it boasted many popular stores such as River Island, Burton, Wallis, Next, Sports Direct, JD Sports, Subway, Game and Dorothy Perkins.

Edinburgh Waverley railway station (also known simply as Waverley; Scottish Gaelic: Waverley Dhùn Èideann) is the principal station serving Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the second busiest station in Scotland, after Glasgow Central. It is the northern terminus of the East Coast Main Line, 393 miles 13 chains (393.16 miles; 632.7 kilometres) from London King's Cross, although some trains operated by London North Eastern Railway continue to other Scottish destinations beyond Edinburgh.

North Bridge is a road bridge and street in Edinburgh linking the High Street with Princes Street, and the Old Town with the New Town. The current bridge was built between 1894 and 1897. A previous North Bridge, built between 1763 and 1772, stood until 1896.