Living in Haymarket, Edinburgh
The transport hub west of the centre. Tenement housing above busy commercial streets, the Haymarket railway station with intercity ScotRail and the tram, and Edinburgh Murrayfield Stadium five minutes west.
Haymarket is the area around the Haymarket railway station — Edinburgh's second-busiest after Waverley, with ScotRail intercity service to Glasgow, Aberdeen and London. The neighbourhood extends west of West End, bounded by West Maitland Street, Morrison Street, and the Western Approach Road corridor. The housing is mostly Victorian sandstone tenements above ground-floor commercial. The Murrayfield Stadium (Scotland's national rugby ground, 67,000 capacity) is five minutes west by tram or bus.
Who lives here
A mix of young professionals, students, and long-term renters in the tenement flats. International presence is significant — many short-term consulting and finance contracts bring people through Haymarket for one- or two-year stays. The transport access and the relatively cheaper rent than New Town make it popular with people who commute out of Edinburgh by train.
What it's like during the day
Busy with commuter and traveller traffic around the station. West Maitland Street and Morrison Street are commercial — coffee chains, sandwich shops, convenience stores. The wider residential streets behind are quieter. Coates Gardens and Eglinton Crescent hold small Georgian set-pieces. The Edinburgh International Conference Centre is on the southern edge.
What it's like in the evening
Active on match days at Murrayfield — international rugby and concerts bring 60,000 people through the area on Saturday afternoons several times a year. Otherwise the evening is moderate: a cluster of restaurants and pubs on Dalry Road, Haymarket Terrace, and West Maitland Street keep going until 11 PM. The EICC hosts evening events. Late-night the area goes quiet by midnight in residential streets.
Getting around
Haymarket station has ScotRail trains every few minutes to Waverley (one stop, three minutes), Glasgow (50 minutes), Aberdeen (2h 20m), and London (4h 15m on LNER). The Edinburgh Tram stops at Haymarket and runs east to Newhaven and west to Edinburgh Airport in 25 minutes. Lothian Buses 1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 22, 25, 26, 30, 33, 41, 44 cover the corridor. Most central destinations are walkable.
Eating and shopping
The food scene is dense around the station — quick-service for commuters, Indian and Chinese restaurants on Dalry Road and West Maitland Street, pubs like The Caley Sample Room (one of the city's largest pubs) and The Athletic Arms (a famous rugby pub). Sainsbury's on West Maitland Street and Tesco Metro on Dalry Road handle daily groceries. The Haymarket central reservation hosts an occasional small market.
When NOT to pick it
If you want a quiet residential street or pre-Victorian character. Haymarket has near-constant train and bus noise on the main streets, and match days at Murrayfield bring crowds and licensed-extension noise. The Victorian tenements are old, often without lifts, and apartments range from small studios to four-bedroom HMOs. Haymarket is at its best for people who use the station daily, who want a five-minute tram to Princes Street, and who don't need a leafy residential setting.