CityBest May – September
Edinburgh
The New Town's grandest interiors were built as showrooms, not bars — this one only became a bar by accident of geography.
What's now the Café Royal opened in 1861 as a showroom for gas fittings and sanitary ware, and turned into a hotel bar only two years later. The oval island counter and the Doulton tile portraits of Victorian inventors came later still, added in the 1890s. Edinburgh's New Town is full of buildings that started out as something else entirely — this is one of the more interesting ones to actually sit inside.
Logged in Edinburgh
Where to stay in Edinburgh
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