British Transport Hotels
Encyclopedia
British Transport Hotels (BTH) was the brand name of the hotels and catering business associated with the nationalised railway system in Great Britain
from 1953 to 1983.
, who later re-branded the on-railway catering business as Travellers Fare. The Board also promoted its hotels through Golden Rail package holidays.
The Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher
decided to privatise the non-core businesses of British Rail (engineering, hotels, property and shipping). Provision was made for this by the Transport Act 1981
, BTH being sold piecemeal between 1981 and 1983. Some of the hotels continue to operate under a variety of owners but at least one (the Zetland at Saltburn) has long since been turned into apartment dwellings.
Artifacts from railway-owned hotels are included in the remit of the National Railway Museum
at York
. The collection includes china, glass, silverware, uniforms and other, more ephemeral items.
took over several dozen hotels from the private railway companies, including (these lists are currently incomplete):
From the Great Western Railway
:
From the London, Midland and Scottish Railway
:
From the London and North Eastern Railway
:
From the Southern Railway
:
While many railway hotels were next to major stations, facilitating onward travel, others such as Gleneagles and Moretonhampstead were destinations in their own right, part of a railway company strategy to induce demand for its services. The GWR had also promoted the idea of the ‘holiday let’, using ‘camping coaches’, redundant carriage bodies sited in West Country beauty spots. Its ambitious plans for the post-war period included further diversification through the establishment of holiday camps. These plans were cut short by nationalisation, though the idea was put into practice with great success by chains such as Butlin’s.
In contrast, the nationalised hotel chain did not expand, other than through reversion of leases, and investment in hotel assets was a relatively low priority. The reason was partly financial, as the railways struggled to reconcile an unsustainable capital structure with falling revenues, but also political. For most of their existence the nationalised industries operated under Conservative
governments, who did not wish to see them diversify at the expense of private sector interests. As the railway industry itself declined, so the number of railway hotels was also reduced.
According to The Times
(Thursday 18 February 1965, p. vii), at that time the hotels forming the chain were:
A new hotel was built in St Andrews in about 1968.
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
from 1953 to 1983.
Organisation
At the nationalisation of the railways on 1 January 1948, hotels and catering came under the control of BTC's Railway Executive. However, on 1 July 1948 they were separated from direct railway control and placed under British Transport Commission's Hotels Executive, chaired by Lord Inman, who was later succeeded by Sir Harry Methven. This arrangement lasted until 1 October 1953, when the Executive was abolished and direct responsibility assumed by the Commission. They became part of a Division known as the British Transport Hotels and Catering Services. In 1963, the division was formed into a subsidiary company, British Transport Hotels Ltd. On the break-up of the British Transport Commission in 1963, ownership passed to the British Railways BoardBritish Railways Board
The British Railways Board was a nationalised industry in the United Kingdom that existed from 1962 to 2001. From its foundation until 1997, it was responsible for most railway services in Great Britain, trading under the brand names British Railways and, from 1965, British Rail...
, who later re-branded the on-railway catering business as Travellers Fare. The Board also promoted its hotels through Golden Rail package holidays.
The Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
decided to privatise the non-core businesses of British Rail (engineering, hotels, property and shipping). Provision was made for this by the Transport Act 1981
Transport Act 1981
The Transport Act 1981 was a Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Amongst other items it introduced the compulsory wearing of seat belts for front seat passengers for a trial period of three year....
, BTH being sold piecemeal between 1981 and 1983. Some of the hotels continue to operate under a variety of owners but at least one (the Zetland at Saltburn) has long since been turned into apartment dwellings.
Artifacts from railway-owned hotels are included in the remit of the National Railway Museum
National Railway Museum
The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the British National Museum of Science and Industry and telling the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It has won many awards, including the European Museum of the Year Award in 2001...
at York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
. The collection includes china, glass, silverware, uniforms and other, more ephemeral items.
Hotels
On vesting day, 1 January 1948, the British Transport CommissionBritish Transport Commission
The British Transport Commission was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain...
took over several dozen hotels from the private railway companies, including (these lists are currently incomplete):
From the Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
:
- Great Western HotelGreat Western Hotel, LondonThe Hilton London Paddington, formerly the Great Western Royal Hotel, is a hotel that forms part of the Paddington station complex in London, England. The hotel was built on Praed Street in 1851–54 to a design by architect Philip Charles Hardwick, and effectively forms the main facade of the...
, Paddington, London (today known as the Hilton London Paddington) - Manor House Hotel, Moretonhampstead, Devon (known as Bovey CastleBovey CastleBovey Castle is a large early 20th century mansion on the edge of Dartmoor, near Moretonhampstead, Devon, England. It is a Grade II* listed buildingand is now a hotel.-History:...
since 2003) - Tregenna CastleTregenna CastleTregenna Castle, in St Ives, Cornwall, was built by John Stephens in the 18th century. The estate was sold in 1871 and became an hotel, a purpose for which it is still used today.The castle is a Grade II Listed building...
Hotel, St. Ives, Cornwall - Welcombe Hotel, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
From the London, Midland and Scottish Railway
London, Midland and Scottish Railway
The London Midland and Scottish Railway was a British railway company. It was formed on 1 January 1923 under the Railways Act of 1921, which required the grouping of over 120 separate railway companies into just four...
:
- Ayr HotelAyr railway stationAyr railway station serves the town of Ayr in South Ayrshire, Scotland. It is situated in Smith Street, off Burns Statue Square. The station, which is managed by First ScotRail, is on the Ayrshire Coast Line, south-west of Glasgow Central railway station....
, Ayr - Midland HotelMidland Hotel, BradfordThe Midland Hotel is a 90-bedroom three-star Victorian hotel in Bradford City Centre, owned and managed by London-based Peel Hotels.The architect was Charles Trubshaw, who was contracted to design many stations for Midland Railway Company...
, Bradford - Adelphi HotelBritannia Adelphi HotelThe Britannia Adelphi Hotel, formerly the Adelphi Hotel, is in Ranelagh Place, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. The present building is the third hotel on the site, and has been designated by English Heritage as Grade II listed building....
, Liverpool - Caledonian Hotel, Edinburgh (today known as the Caledonian Hilton), at the former Caledonian RailwayCaledonian RailwayThe Caledonian Railway was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century and it was absorbed almost a century later into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, in the 1923 railway grouping, by means of the Railways Act 1921...
's Princes Street station. - Gleneagles HotelGleneagles HotelThe Gleneagles Hotel is a luxury hotel near Auchterarder, Perth and Kinross, Scotland.- History :The hotel was built by the former Caledonian Railway Company and opened in 1924, originally with its own railway station...
, Perthshire - Queen’s Hotel, Birmingham
- Queen’s HotelQueens Hotel (Leeds)Queens Hotel is a hotel owned by Quintessential Hotels, located on Leeds City Square in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.It is an elegant Art Deco Grade II listed building. It was constructed in 1937 by architects W.Curtis Green and W.H. Hamlyn for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway...
, Leeds - Lochalsh Hotel, Ross-shire, at the former Highland RailwayHighland RailwayThe Highland Railway was one of the smaller British railways before the Railways Act 1921; it operated north of Perth railway station in Scotland and served the farthest north of Britain...
's Kyle of Lochalsh railway stationKyle of Lochalsh railway stationKyle of Lochalsh railway station is the terminus of the Kyle of Lochalsh Line in the village of Kyle of Lochalsh in the Highlands, northern Scotland....
. - Midland Hotel, Derby
- Midland HotelMidland Hotel (Manchester)The Midland is a 312 bedroom grand hotel situated in Manchester city centre, in North West England. Opened in September 1903, it was built by the Midland Railway to serve the adjacent Manchester Central railway station...
, Manchester - Midland HotelMidland Hotel (Morecambe)The Midland Hotel is a famous Streamline Moderne building in Morecambe, in Lancashire, England. It was built by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway , in 1933, to the designs of architect Oliver Hill, with sculpture by Eric Gill. It is a Grade II* listed building...
, Morecambe - TurnberryTurnberryTurnberry is a golf resort on the coast of the outer Firth of Clyde in southwestern Scotland. Located in South Ayrshire on the rugged coast, it comprises three links golf courses, a golf academy, a five-star hotel, designed by James Miller and completed in 1906, as well as lodge and cottage...
Hotel, Ayrshire
From the London and North Eastern Railway
London and North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain...
:
- Great Eastern Hotel, Liverpool Street, London
- Great Northern Hotel, King’s Cross, London
- North British Hotel, Edinburgh (today known as the Balmoral HotelBalmoral HotelThe Balmoral is a luxury five-star hotel and landmark in Edinburgh, Scotland, known as the North British Hotel until the late 1980s. It is located in the heart of the city at the east end of Princes Street, the main shopping street beneath the Edinburgh Castle rock, and the southern edge of the New...
), at the former North British RailwayNorth British RailwayThe North British Railway was a Scottish railway company that was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway at the Grouping in 1923.-History:...
's Edinburgh Waverley railway stationEdinburgh Waverley railway stationEdinburgh Waverley railway station is the main railway station in the Scottish capital Edinburgh. Covering an area of over 25 acres in the centre of the city, it is the second-largest main line railway station in the United Kingdom in terms of area, the largest being...
. - North British Hotel, Glasgow
- Royal Station Hotel, Newcastle
- Royal Station Hotel, York
From the Southern Railway
Southern Railway (Great Britain)
The Southern Railway was a British railway company established in the 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the Channel ports, South West England, South coast resorts and Kent...
:
- Charing Cross Hotel
- Grosvenor Hotel, Victoria
Catering, station refreshments and on-train catering
Also inherited at this date were the companies’ on-railway catering interests: station refreshment rooms and restaurant/buffet services on trains.While many railway hotels were next to major stations, facilitating onward travel, others such as Gleneagles and Moretonhampstead were destinations in their own right, part of a railway company strategy to induce demand for its services. The GWR had also promoted the idea of the ‘holiday let’, using ‘camping coaches’, redundant carriage bodies sited in West Country beauty spots. Its ambitious plans for the post-war period included further diversification through the establishment of holiday camps. These plans were cut short by nationalisation, though the idea was put into practice with great success by chains such as Butlin’s.
In contrast, the nationalised hotel chain did not expand, other than through reversion of leases, and investment in hotel assets was a relatively low priority. The reason was partly financial, as the railways struggled to reconcile an unsustainable capital structure with falling revenues, but also political. For most of their existence the nationalised industries operated under Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
governments, who did not wish to see them diversify at the expense of private sector interests. As the railway industry itself declined, so the number of railway hotels was also reduced.
According to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
(Thursday 18 February 1965, p. vii), at that time the hotels forming the chain were:
- Aberdeen: Station Hotel
- Ayrshire: Turnberry Hotel
- Birmingham: Queen's Hotel
- Bradford: Midland HotelMidland Hotel, BradfordThe Midland Hotel is a 90-bedroom three-star Victorian hotel in Bradford City Centre, owned and managed by London-based Peel Hotels.The architect was Charles Trubshaw, who was contracted to design many stations for Midland Railway Company...
- Cornwall: Tregenna Castle Hotel
- Derby: Midland Hotel
- Devon: Manor House Hotel, Moretonhampstead
- Dumfries: Station Hotel
- Edinburgh:
- Caledonian Hotel, at the former Caledonian RailwayCaledonian RailwayThe Caledonian Railway was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century and it was absorbed almost a century later into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, in the 1923 railway grouping, by means of the Railways Act 1921...
's Edinburgh Princes Street railway station. - North British Hotel, at the former North British RailwayNorth British RailwayThe North British Railway was a Scottish railway company that was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway at the Grouping in 1923.-History:...
's Edinburgh Waverley railway stationEdinburgh Waverley railway stationEdinburgh Waverley railway station is the main railway station in the Scottish capital Edinburgh. Covering an area of over 25 acres in the centre of the city, it is the second-largest main line railway station in the United Kingdom in terms of area, the largest being...
.
- Caledonian Hotel, at the former Caledonian Railway
- Glasgow:
- Central Hotel, at the Caledonian RailwayCaledonian RailwayThe Caledonian Railway was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century and it was absorbed almost a century later into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, in the 1923 railway grouping, by means of the Railways Act 1921...
's Glasgow Central railway station. - North British Hotel
- St Enoch Hotel, at the former Glasgow and South Western RailwayGlasgow and South Western RailwayThe Glasgow and South Western Railway , one of the pre-grouping railway companies, served a triangular area of south-west Scotland, between Glasgow, Stranraer and Carlisle...
's St Enoch railway stationSt Enoch railway station-External links:* *...
.
- Central Hotel, at the Caledonian Railway
- Hull: Royal Station Hotel
- Inverness: Station Hotel
- Kyle of Lochalsh: Lochalsh Hotel, at the former Highland RailwayHighland RailwayThe Highland Railway was one of the smaller British railways before the Railways Act 1921; it operated north of Perth railway station in Scotland and served the farthest north of Britain...
's Kyle of Lochalsh railway stationKyle of Lochalsh railway stationKyle of Lochalsh railway station is the terminus of the Kyle of Lochalsh Line in the village of Kyle of Lochalsh in the Highlands, northern Scotland....
. - London:
- Charing Cross Hotel
- Great Eastern Hotel
- Great Northern Hotel
- Great Western Hotel
- Leeds: Queen's Hotel
- Liverpool:
- Adelphi Hotel
- Exchange Hotel
- Manchester: Midland Hotel
- Newcastle: Royal Station Hotel
- Perth: Station Hotel
- Perthshire: Gleneagles Hotel
- Peterborough: Great Northern Hotel
- Saltburn-by-the-Sea: Zetland Hotel
- Sheffield: Royal Victoria Hotel
- Stratford-on-Avon: Welcombe Hotel
- Sutherland: Dornoch Hotel
- West Hartlepool: Grand Hotel
- York: The Royal York HotelThe Royal York HotelThe Royal York Hotel is an historic Grade II listed building adjacent to York railway station. It is a five-storey building of yellow Scarborough brick and was completed in 1878, a year after the present station opened. The architect was William Peachey of the North Eastern Railway...
A new hotel was built in St Andrews in about 1968.