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The pub’s story
Nor’ Loft is Market Street Hotel’s seventh-floor Champagne lounge, a modern rooftop room above the edge of Waverley Valley. It opened with the 98-room hotel in 2019, on a site the hotel describes as a 50-year derelict gap rather than an older building reborn. The name nods to the Nor’ Loch, the former water body below Edinburgh Castle, but that is a place-name reference, not a claim of historic continuity. Nor’ Loft’s appeal is direct lift access to a glassy, high-level view across Princes Street Gardens, the New Town and Calton Hill, with Champagne, wine, cocktails and sharing dishes. It is a lounge rather than a pub, and a polished celebratory stop before or after a train at nearby Waverley. The outdoor-roof language should be read carefully: this is primarily an enclosed seventh-floor lounge under the hotel’s stone roofscape, not an exposed all-weather terrace. Book if a window seat matters.
What to notice
- 01
Nor’ Loft is primarily an enclosed seventh-floor Champagne lounge, not an exposed roof terrace.
- 02
The lounge does not admit under-18s after 20:00, according to its current reservation page.
- 03
Book a window seat if the panorama matters; direct lift access makes it an easy stop from Waverley.
The time rail
The building, the pub and its interior may date from different periods. The timeline keeps documented dates separate from tradition.
The Market Street site is described by its later hotel operator as a derelict gap on Edinburgh’s skyline for roughly 50 years.
City planning records show consent for a new 98-room Market Street Hotel at 6-8 Market Street.
City-owned project accounts record the completed hotel being handed over to its operator.
Pre-opening coverage announces Market Street Hotel and its planned Nor’ Loft rooftop Champagne lounge.
Market Street Hotel opens in Edinburgh with Nor’ Loft as its seventh-floor Champagne lounge.
Nor’ Loft’s official reservation page lists its current seventh-floor setting, Champagne focus and published weekly lounge hours.
Sources & confidence
Council planning and accounts establish the new-build site and handover, while 2019 trade reporting documents Nor’ Loft’s opening. The hotel and lounge pages provide current character, access restrictions and hours.
Research reviewed
- About Market Street HotelMarket Street Hotelofficial
SupportsCurrent operator’s description of the former 50-year derelict gap, seventh-floor Champagne lounge and contemporary hotel design.
- City of Edinburgh Hotel Development Schedule 2019City of Edinburgh Councilgovernment
SupportsPlanning-consent and 2019 completion record for the 98-room new-build Market Street Hotel at 6-8 Market Street.
- CEC Holdings audited annual accounts 2019City of Edinburgh Councilgovernment
SupportsProject-account record that the Market Street Hotel was handed over to HMI on 23 November 2018.
- Design Hotels making Scotland debutTravel Weeklyeditorial
SupportsApril 2019 pre-opening report identifying Nor’ Loft as the planned rooftop Champagne lounge and its Waverley Valley views.
- Market Street Hotel opens in EdinburghTravel Weeklyeditorial
SupportsSeptember 2019 report that the hotel opened in August with Nor’ Loft, explaining the name and lounge setting.
- Nor’ Loft reservationsNor’ Loft / Market Street Hotelofficial
SupportsCurrent seventh-floor location, direct lift access, Champagne-lounge identity, food offer, age policy and weekly hours.
- Nor’ LoftForever Edinburgheditorial
SupportsCurrent tourism listing of the Champagne, caviar and sharing-dishes offer, address, accessibility and weekly hours.
- Market Street Hotel fact sheetMarket Street Hotelofficial
SupportsCurrent 98-room hotel context and Nor’ Loft’s rooftop Champagne-lounge positioning.
