[1] It was completed after Beattie's death by his assistant Andrew Robb Scott and opened as the North British Railway Hotel on 15 October 1902.

[2][3] The site, 52 North Bridge, was previously the location of pharmacists Duncan, Flockhart and company; William Flockhart supplied Dr. (later Sir) James Young Simpson with the first chloroform anaesthetic, which he tried on himself at his home 52 Queen Street in 1847, and became standard practice in childbirth.

On 12 June 1991, Edinburgh-born actor Sean Connery officially reopened the hotel as The Balmoral, Gaelic for "majestic dwelling".

[citation needed] Following a hostile takeover of Forte Group in 1996 by Granada plc, the hotel was put up for sale by its new owners.

[7] The hotel's clock tower, at 190 feet (58 m) high, is a prominent landmark in Edinburgh's city centre.[2].

The clock has been maintained by the Scottish clockmakers James Ritchie & Son and its subsidiary Smith of Derby since 1902.

The clock is famously set to run three minutes fast, to give passengers more time to catch their trains.