A Simple Room and a City That Starts at the Door
Book it if you want a plain, central-ish room in Edinburgh and intend to spend your days out in the city. The location earns its keep: town on foot, buses down Leith Walk, the airport tram nearby. Skip it if you want a smart, spacious room or breakfast waiting downstairs.
Morning here has a useful shape. You come down the curving stair past a stained-glass window that has been catching the light on this landing since the 1800s, out through the front garden, and you are already walking. Waverley is about twenty-four minutes away on foot, straight down towards the New Town. Buses run the Leith Walk corridor all day, and the tram at Balfour Street goes to the airport in one sitting without a change.
What waits back at the hotel is honest rather than lavish. Seven room categories run from a compact attic single to family rooms that sleep three or four in one room, which is genuinely hard to find this close to the middle of Edinburgh. There is a walled garden behind the building with a table and chairs on the grass, free Wi-Fi in every room, and somewhere to leave your bags on the day you arrive. It suits solo travellers and families who treat a room as somewhere to sleep between two long days out, rather than anyone hoping to spend the afternoon in it.
Pilrig Street: Between the New Town and the Port
Pilrig Street runs west off Leith Walk, the long corridor that connects Edinburgh's centre to its old port. That position is the whole argument for staying here. Turn south and you are walking towards Calton Hill, the Playhouse and Princes Street. Turn north and you are heading into Leith, The Shore and the waterfront, where the restaurants and bars have their own character entirely separate from the Old Town.
Look for the stone terrace set back behind railings and a clipped hedge, with the hotel name on a small sign above the ground-floor windows. It is a residential street rather than a commercial one, which is why the building has a garden at all. Calton Hill is about 1.4 km away, roughly sixteen minutes on foot. The Edinburgh Playhouse is a similar walk at about 1.5 km. Edinburgh Castle is further, about 1.9 miles, so most guests take the tram from Balfour Street and finish the last stretch on foot.
A Victorian Building That Still Shows Its Age Well
The building is a nineteenth-century Edinburgh stone house, and the parts of it that were built to impress still do. The main stair curves up around a tall stained-glass window, the ceilings on the front rooms carry deep cornicing and a ceiling rose, and the larger family rooms have the big sash windows that come with that era. Several of the top-floor rooms are lined in pine with a skylight overhead, which makes them feel like a cabin rather than a hotel room.
Set your expectations on the plain side and the place delivers. Rooms are compact, particularly the singles and the basic double, and some of the decor is dated. Guests who arrive expecting a modern hotel room are the ones who leave disappointed; guests who arrive wanting a clean bed in a well-placed Victorian house tend to say the stay did what they needed. There is no breakfast service and no restaurant, so the morning starts with the kettle in your room or a walk down to Leith Walk.
Why Book Edinburgh House Hotel?
It is strongest for travellers who want the city rather than the hotel, and who would rather walk into town than pay to park near it.
Walk into town
Waverley Station is about 1.3 miles from the door, roughly twenty-four minutes on foot, with Calton Hill about sixteen minutes away.
One tram to the airport
The Balfour Street stop is on the airport to Newhaven tram line, so there is no change and no shuttle to work out on arrival.
Rooms that fit a family
Two family categories sleep three or four people in a single room, and the largest runs to about 23 m2.
A garden to sit in
There is a walled lawn and terrace behind the building with garden furniture, which almost nothing else at this level in Edinburgh has.
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- Free Wi-Fi throughout the hotel
- Luggage can be left before check-in on request
- No booking fees
Interesting Points About Edinburgh House Hotel
- The hotel traded as Balfour House before it became Edinburgh House Hotel, so older directory entries and reviews still file it under that name
- The hotel's own website FAQ still shows 14:00 arrival and 11:00 departure and mentions breakfast options; the current booking conditions say 15:00 and 10:00, and no breakfast is served
- Pilrig has been inside Edinburgh's expanded controlled-parking area since 2023, so the free street parking described in older guest questions no longer applies. Council controls in the extended zones generally run Monday to Friday, 08:30 to 17:30, at £4.20 an hour, and the bay's own sign governs
- The Basic Double's bathroom is private but sits outside the bedroom rather than being shared, despite one translated version of the hotel's own site calling it shared
- Stays from 24 July 2026 fall under Edinburgh's visitor levy, charged at 5% of the accommodation cost before VAT for the first five nights of a stay
Rooms & Accommodation at Edinburgh House Hotel
Single Room
Single room · about 6 m² · attached bathroom
The smallest room in the house, and priced to be exactly that. Roughly 6 m² in the attic with its own bathroom attached, a kettle, a television and heating. Choose this if you are travelling alone, arriving late and leaving early, and would rather not pay for floor space you will not use. Anyone who wants to open a suitcase flat should book the double instead.
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Double Room
Double room · about 7 m² · private bathroom
Two people, a private bathroom and no wasted floor. About 7 m², with the bathroom inside the room rather than along the landing, which is the distinction worth checking before you book here. Heating, a kettle, a hairdryer and a flat-screen are standard. This is the room most couples on a city break end up in, and the one to pick if the phrase “external bathroom” gives you pause.
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Twin Room
Twin room · about 9 m² · en suite
Friends or colleagues who want separate beds, at about 9 m² with its own shower room. The attic version of this room is lined in pine with a skylight overhead and a tea tray between the beds, which reads more like a lodge than a city hotel. Worth requesting if you like waking to daylight straight above you; worth avoiding in a July heatwave, since the top-floor rooms hold their warmth.
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Family Room (3 Adults)
Sleeps 3 · about 13 m² · one double and one single bed
The hotel's own listing puts three guests in here on one full bed and one twin, across about 13 m². Best for a family of three, or three friends who would rather share one room than split across two floors, because three people in one room this close to Princes Street is something central Edinburgh mostly cannot offer at all. Note that cots and extra beds are not available, so the beds in the room are the beds you get.
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Family Room (4 Adults)
Sleeps 4 · about 21 m² · two twin beds and one full bed
About 21 m² of first-floor Victorian room: deep cornice, ceiling rose, sash windows onto the trees, and beds for four. Four travelling together in one room, ten minutes from the buses into town, is a rare combination in this city. Families use it, but so do groups who would rather share the space than split across two smaller rooms on different floors.
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Basic Double Room with External Bathroom
Double bed · about 6 m² · private bathroom outside the room
Read the name carefully, because it is the one thing people get wrong here. The bathroom is private and yours alone; it simply sits outside the bedroom rather than off it, a few steps along the landing. One translated version of the hotel's own website calls it shared, which it is not. Choose this if you want the cheapest way for two people to sleep on Pilrig Street and do not mind the few steps to the door in a dressing gown.
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Family Room with Shower
Family room · about 23 m² · own shower room
At roughly 23 m² this is the biggest room the hotel lists, with its own shower room off the bedroom and space to leave suitcases open without stepping over them. The hotel does not publish a bed configuration for this category, so confirm the exact arrangement when you book if the sleeping plan matters. Best for a group who want one large room and a bathroom nobody has to leave the room to reach.
Check PricesFacilities at Edinburgh House Hotel
In the room
- Free Wi-Fi
- Flat-screen television
- Electric kettle
- Heating
- Ironing facilities
- Hairdryer
- Towels and toiletries
- Not available: Air conditioning
In the building
- Walled garden
- Terrace with seating
- Luggage storage
- Daily housekeeping
- Private check-in and check-out
- Non-smoking throughout
- Not available: Lift
- Not available: Guest laundry
Food and drink
- Tea and coffee making facilities in every room
- Not available: Breakfast
- Not available: Restaurant
- Not available: Bar
Getting around
- Buses along the Leith Walk corridor
- Balfour Street tram stop for the airport line
- About 24 minutes on foot to Waverley Station
- Not available: On-site parking
Location and Getting Around
Edinburgh House Hotel stands on Pilrig Street, a residential road running west off Leith Walk in the EH6 postcode, with the city centre to the south and the port of Leith to the north. Look for the stone terrace set behind black railings, with a small name sign above the ground-floor windows and steps up to a white front door.
On foot, Waverley Station is about 1.3 miles away, which pedestrian routing puts at roughly twenty-four minutes. Calton Hill is nearer at about 1.4 km, around sixteen minutes, and the Edinburgh Playhouse about 1.5 km, around seventeen minutes. Buses run the Leith Walk corridor into the centre all day, and Rome2Rio's routing from Waverley shows a combined bus and walk trip of about fourteen minutes if you would rather not walk it with luggage.
For the airport, walk to the Balfour Street tram stop and take a tram towards the airport; the tram leg alone runs about forty-three minutes, and the whole journey including the walk comes to roughly forty-nine. Routing sources disagree on that access walk, giving anywhere between about seven minutes and roughly 1,030 metres or fourteen minutes, so allow the longer figure with a suitcase. Murrayfield Stadium is about 7 km by road with a direct bus of roughly thirty minutes.
Drivers should plan ahead. The hotel advertises no parking of its own, and Pilrig has been inside Edinburgh's expanded controlled-parking area since 2023, so the free-street-parking answers in older guest questions no longer hold. Council controls in the extended zones generally run Monday to Friday from 08:30 to 17:30 at £4.20 an hour, but the sign or machine on the bay you use is what actually governs. For dinner without a journey, NeighbourWood at 294 Leith Walk is a Syrian and Mediterranean kitchen about seven minutes away on foot.
- Edinburgh Waverley Station: 1.3 miles, about 24 min walk
- Calton Hill: 1.4 km, about 16 min walk
- Edinburgh Playhouse: 1.5 km, about 17 min walk
- Balfour Street tram stop: 7 to 14 min walk
- Princes Street: 1.6 km, about 5 min drive
- NeighbourWood, 294 Leith Walk: about 7 min walk
- Edinburgh Castle: about 29 min by tram and foot
- Edinburgh Airport: about 49 min by tram
Getting to Key Locations
Photo: Sean-sabhaois, CC BY-SA 4.0
Calton Hill
16 min walk
About 1.4 km from the front door, a 16-minute walk, Calton Hill is the volcanic rise at the east end of Princes Street where Edinburgh's best-known skyline view is taken from. The unfinished National Monument and the Nelson Monument stand on top, and the climb is short enough to do before dinner.
View on Map
Photo: Enric, CC BY-SA 4.0
Edinburgh Playhouse
17 min walk
About 1.5 km away, a 17-minute walk straight down Leith Walk, the Playhouse is the biggest theatre in the city and the one that takes the touring musicals and concerts. Being able to walk home afterwards rather than queue for a taxi on Greenside Place is a real advantage of staying on this side of town.
View on Map
Photo: Peter Stevens, CC BY 2.0
Edinburgh Castle
29 min tram
Around 29 minutes by tram and foot, or about 1.9 miles if you walk the whole way, Edinburgh Castle sits on the crag at the top of the Royal Mile. Most guests take the tram from Balfour Street to Princes Street and finish on foot, which turns a 36-minute walk into a manageable trip before the first timed entry of the day.
View on MapLeith Walk, Pilrig and the Way Into Town
Pilrig sits at the hinge between two very different Edinburghs. South of here is the postcard city: Princes Street, the New Town's grid, the Old Town climbing towards the Castle. North is Leith, the old port, where the warehouses along The Shore became restaurants and bars without losing the working-harbour bones underneath. Leith Walk is the long straight road that joins them, and it runs past the end of Pilrig Street.
That gives you a genuine choice each evening rather than the single direction most central hotels offer. Walk south for the theatres, the galleries and the festival venues in August, when the Fringe and the Tattoo fill the city for most of the month. Walk north for dinner somewhere less obviously aimed at visitors. The tram now runs the whole corridor to Newhaven, so the waterfront is reachable without a bus timetable, and the same line goes the other way to the airport.
See Leith and The Shore on Foot
A street-level walk through Leith and down to The Shore, the waterfront district at the far end of the corridor that Pilrig Street sits on.
Is Edinburgh House Hotel worth it?
Yes, if you want a straightforward room in a Victorian house with the city genuinely on foot: Waverley in twenty-four minutes, the airport tram nearby, and family rooms that sleep three or four in one go. Skip it if you need a modern, spacious room, breakfast downstairs or somewhere to leave the car, because none of those are part of the deal here.
What Guests Say About Edinburgh House Hotel
Scores and review counts are aggregated from verified guest bookings on major travel platforms.
Good
Recent feedback settles into a clear pattern. Guests keep coming back to the position, the buses and the welcome at reception, and the reviews that praise the stay usually describe a clean, comfortable room and staff who sorted something out. The complaints are just as consistent: rooms that feel small, decor that looks its age, warmth in the attic rooms in summer and Wi-Fi that connects but does not always work. Arrive expecting a plain room in a well-placed old building and the stay tends to land the way people hoped.
Rated the position highly and found the staff friendly throughout the stay.
Liked where the hotel sits, but felt the room looked tired and rather gloomy.
Found it clean and comfortable enough for a basic stay, though some of it looked shabby. A television fault took three days to be partly sorted.
Called the position excellent, and noted that the rooms are on the small side.
Described the room as cosy and well cleaned and liked the bathroom, and found the receptionist friendly. The Wi-Fi stayed connected but would not actually work during the visit.
Praised the position, the shower and the welcome at reception, but found an attic room exceptionally warm with a window that would not open for air.
Found the room comfortable, the buses easy to pick up and the owner helpful when a small problem came up.
Good to Know Before You Book
Arrival times
Check-in runs from 15:00 and check-out is by 10:00. If you will arrive after 22:00, tell the hotel in advance; the booking conditions set a £10 late-arrival charge. The hotel's own website FAQ still shows 14:00 and 11:00, which is out of date, so work to the booking conditions.
Parking
There is no hotel car park, and Pilrig now sits inside Edinburgh's expanded controlled-parking area. Controls in the extended zones generally run Monday to Friday from 08:30 to 17:30 at £4.20 an hour, but read the sign on the bay you use, because restrictions vary street by street. Arriving without a car is much the easier plan.
Breakfast
No breakfast is served and there is no restaurant or bar on site, so plan the morning around the kettle in your room or the cafés on Leith Walk. Older wording on the hotel's own site suggests breakfast options; the current booking conditions say otherwise.
Deposit and the visitor levy
A refundable £100 damage deposit is taken by credit card on arrival and returned after check-out subject to inspection. Photo identification and a credit card are required at check-in. Edinburgh's visitor levy applies to qualifying stays from 24 July 2026 at 5% of the accommodation cost before VAT for the first five nights.
Cancellation
Cancellation and prepayment terms differ from one room and rate to another, so check the conditions attached to the option you select before confirming. Leaving early may still be charged as the full booked stay.
Photos of Edinburgh House Hotel
Edinburgh House Hotel FAQs
No, the hotel has no car park of its own. Pilrig sits inside Edinburgh's expanded controlled-parking area, so the free street parking mentioned in older guest questions no longer applies. Controls in the extended zones generally run Monday to Friday from 08:30 to 17:30 at £4.20 an hour, and the sign or machine on your bay is what governs. Most guests find arriving by tram or bus simpler.
Rooms are ready from 15:00, and you need to be out by 10:00 on the morning you leave. Arrivals after 22:00 need to be arranged in advance and carry a £10 late-arrival charge under the booking conditions. The hotel's own website still shows older 14:00 and 11:00 times, which no longer match the current conditions.
About 1.3 miles, which pedestrian routing puts at roughly 24 minutes on foot. With luggage, a combined bus and walk journey from Waverley comes to about 14 minutes, using the Princes Street stops for the Pilrig direction.
Walk to the Balfour Street tram stop and take a tram towards the airport. The tram leg runs about 43 minutes and the whole journey including the walk comes to roughly 49 minutes. Sources differ on that access walk, from about 7 minutes to roughly 1,030 metres or 14 minutes, so allow the longer figure if you are pulling a case.
No. There is no breakfast service and no restaurant or bar on site. Every room has a kettle with tea and coffee, and Leith Walk is a couple of minutes away for cafés. Older wording on the hotel's own website mentions breakfast options, but the current booking conditions say it is not offered.
Almost all of them, but the arrangement varies by room type. The Double has a private bathroom inside the room, the Single has an attached bathroom and the Twin is en suite. The Basic Double has a private bathroom that sits outside the bedroom rather than off it, which is different from a shared bathroom despite one translated page on the hotel's own site calling it that.
Yes, luggage storage is offered and the hotel has previously confirmed bags could be dropped from around 08:00 on the day of arrival. Treat it as a service to request when you book rather than a guaranteed all-day left-luggage room.
A refundable £100 damage deposit is taken by credit card at check-in and returned after departure subject to inspection, and photo ID plus a credit card are required on arrival. Cancellation and prepayment terms vary by room and rate, so read the conditions attached to the option you choose.
No, pets are not permitted. The hotel is also non-smoking throughout, and quiet hours run from 22:00 to 07:00.
Other Places to Stay in Edinburgh
Mayfair Guest House
About a hundred metres along the same street at number 76, so pick it if Pilrig Street is what you want but Edinburgh House is full on your dates.
Edinburgh Central Accommodation
Closer to the city-centre end of Leith Walk at Haddington Place, which cuts the walk into town at the cost of the garden and the family rooms.
Beaverbank Place
Campus-style rooms a few streets west, better if you want a modern, uniform room rather than a Victorian house with rooms that all differ.
Ready to Book Edinburgh House Hotel?
Pick your room type, check the bathroom arrangement that suits you, and see which dates are open on Pilrig Street.
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