Edinburgh's Tower restaurant will not reopen

22 June 2020 by
Edinburgh's Tower restaurant will not reopen

After 22 years of operations, Edinburgh's Tower restaurant will not reopen when lockdown eases due to social distancing restrictions making the business "uneconomic".

The restaurant is located on top of the National Museum of Scotland. Proprietor James Thomson said: "The Tower was the first rooftop restaurant in Edinburgh and quickly gained a worldwide reputation for great food and service, which has stayed with us down the years. Covid-19 presents us with some insurmountable difficulties and, with our lease coming to an end anyway, we've had to take the decision not to reopen."

Redundancy consultations have started with 37 members of staff.

On behalf of National Museums Scotland, director of NMS Enterprises Peter Williamson said: "We are saddened by the closing of the Tower restaurant after 22 enjoyable and successful years of working with James and his team.

"The hospitality sector has been hit very hard by Covid-19 and we now need to take stock and consider the long-term future of this space so that visitors and guests can continue to enjoy what remains one of the best views in Edinburgh."

Thomson also owns the Witchery and Prestonfield House hotels in Edinburgh. It is hoped both those businesses will be able to reopen on 15 July following final confirmation from the Scottish government.

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media Group is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking