Railway companies and resort hotels between the wars

Journal of Transport History, The, Mar 2001 by pope, Rex

I

British railway companies' investment in the leisure market has received some, if not excessive, attention. Simmons, Reid and Brendan are among those who have discussed early activity in excursions and tourism, albeit with much of the latter assigned to agents such as Henry Gaze, John Frame or, above all, Thomas Cook & Son.1 Simmons and Riches have examined the railways' contribution to the development of particular spas or watering places2

The effect of the railways on the hotel industry has attracted slightly more attention, not least because of the grandeur of hotel development at or close to stations in the great cities of the country. Carter's work deals exclusively with railway hotels; Simmons has explored the impact of railways on the hotel trade as a whole; Taylor and Bush gave prominent attention to the establishments of railway companies in their broader study of the 'golden age' of British hotels. Biddle has provided an informative, while inevitably succinct, entry for the Oxford Companion.3 However, all these writers have concentrated, exclusively or largely, on the period before 1914.

Britain's railway companies became involved in the hotel business from an early date. The London & Birmingham Railway's Euston Hotels were opened in 1839. By 1914 virtually all major British cities had at least one railway hotel. Encouraged by the success of Thomas Cook, Joseph Dearden and the like, the railways were also quick to see opportunities in promoting trips, tourism and holidaymaking. Railway hotels at ferry ports, including the Station Hotel at Holyhead (LNWR), the Parkeston Quay (GER) and Fishguard Bay (GWR), were manifestation of this. The companies were generally slower at establishing resort hotels, places where people would choose to stay for a period, although the NWR's North Western at Morecambe (later renamed the Midland) was established as early as 1848 while the Stockton & Darlington company opened the Zetland Hotel in 1863 as part of its bid to promote Saltburn as a holiday resort and the GWR operated Tregenna Castle at St Ives as a 'country house' hotel from 1878.4 However, around the turn of the century, Scottish companies began establishing leisure resort hotels, generally offering a combination of sea and first-class golfing facilities, served by new or recently established lines. Cruden Bay (Great North of Scotland Railway) opened in 1896, Dornoch (Highland Railway) in 1904, the ambitious Turnberry (GSWR) in 1906. In 1914 the Caledonian Railway began the most ambitious project of all, the sumptuous Gleneagles at Auchterarder in Perthshire.5 Simmons and Taylor and Bush have argued that the railway companies' interest in all pre-First World War hotels, city-- centre, port or resort, was primarily as sources of traffic and secondarily as sources of publicity. They were not necessarily viewed as profitable in their own right. Indeed, companies were generally reluctant to reveal the profitability of individual hotels.6

This article examines the development of railway resort hotels during the years 1918-39, a time of some difficulty for the railway and hotel industries alike. It argues that, as part of a general move to enhance their leisure business, railway companies expanded their operation at the top end of the resort hotel market, and that this strategy was not necessarily the best option. It suggests that, while the impact on receipts from railway traffic could be important, it was no longer the primary motive for investment. In an age of private motor traffic, prestigious hotels were mainly evaluated on their own performance, though their advertising value for the companies owning them remained a consideration. It draws attention to the fact that demands on hotels were altering, with rapidly rising expectations of service and provision from a changing pattern of guests.

II

Among the newly formed railway companies of 1923 the LMS was by far the major hotelier. It took over a number of resort hotels from Scottish companies, including small to medium-size establishments at Strathpeffer, Dornoch and Kyle of Lochalsh as well as the rather larger Turnberry. During the inter-war years it was to complete Gleneagles (1924), upgrade Turnberry, establish the Welcombe (at Stratford on Avon, unusual in that it was in an area where the major rail connections were in the hands of another company, the GWR) and rebuild and transform the Midland at Morecambe. Others active in the resort hotel business included the LNER, which operated the Cruden Beach and Zetland, the Sandringham Hotel (at Hunstanton) and, as its flagship, took over the Felix at Felixstowe (Suffolk) from the Tollemache family for L150,000 in 1920.7 The GWR purchased North Bovey Manor at Moretonhampstead, on the edge of Dartmoor, in 1929, establishing another first-class country house hotel to go with the Tregenna Castle, and was planning a further establishment near Looe (Cornwall) during the years immediately before the Second World War.8

Establishing the profitability of railway company hotels is difficult. Only the LMS identified hotels and catering as a separate financial operation. Even in its case, figures cannot be compared directly with those of free-standing hotels. LMS hotels could draw on the capital resources of the whole company and there were economies in free carriage, joint purchasing or shared use of laundries, bakeries or bottling stores. Conversely, estimates of a railway hotel's financial viability should take some account of any contribution to increased railway traffic. For example, the LMS chief accountant estimated that, in spite of the growth of competition from motor transport, Gleneagles contributed an average of L13,500 a year to the gross receipts of Gleneagles station.9