Escape Hotel Indigo

A smartly refurbished hotel on Princes Street is writing a new chapter in its illustrious history

- Judy Diamond

 

Few cities celebrate their writers the way Edinburgh does. Sir Walter Scott gets the lion’s share of honours, with a railway station (Waverley) and a football club (Heart of Midlothian) named after his books, as well as a gothic spaceship in Princes Street Gardens. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has a statue of his famous deerstalker-wearing detective, and many poets and novelists have their words inscribed in the flagstones of Lady Stair’s Close. Fans of Rowling, Rankin, Welsh and many others will find evidence of their heroes around town.

This might explain why a literary theme was chosen to inspire the decor at Hotel Indigo, the new incarnation of the long-established Royal British Hotel, which sits at the eastern end of Princes Street overlooking Waverley. (Rather confusingly, there is another, very different Hotel Indigo in Edinburgh, on York Place.) There have been lodgings here for so long that parts of the hotel occupy the oldest building still standing on the capital’s most famous thoroughfare. Now part of the International Hotels Group, it has been given a complete refurbishment and become the kind of stylish bolthole that befits its location. Aveda toiletries, quality bedlinen and sparkling new ensuites all contribute to the smart finish.