Trivia: Railway station hotels?

[lobby ludd]

The list of hotels where you can currently enter the hotel directly from the platform or station concourse, ie. without leaving the station (I am not asking about hotels that are merely near a station) would appear to be Glasgow, Newcastle, York, Leeds, Hull, Paddington, London Victoria, and St Pancras.

 

[najaB]

Ok sorry

No need to apologise. I'm sure at some point in the past it probably did have direct access.

This archway looks like a likely candidate:

 

[cf111]

No need to apologise. I'm sure at some point in the past it probably did have direct access.

This archway looks like a likely candidate:

Formerly the darkest, dingiest left luggage hall in Scotland.

I've no idea if it gave access to the Royal Highland in the past but if I had to guess at where in the station there would have been access it would have been through where the travel centre/former lounge is.

 

[Llanigraham]

Malvern College, which has a tunnel entrance from the end of the Down Platform at Malvern Station, I think used to be a hotel.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Formerly the darkest, dingiest left luggage hall in Scotland.

I've no idea if it gave access to the Royal Highland in the past but if I had to guess at where in the station there would have been access it would have been through where the travel centre/former lounge is.

If that's the Falcon Square entrance, I believe it did used to give direct access.

Earlier in the thread Newcastle was mentioned, but having stayed at the Royal Station Hotel earlier this year I don't think it has direct access to the platform any more.

 

[lobby ludd]

There is an entrance into the foyer of the Royal Station Hotel from inside the Station at Newcastle. I was there last Saturday, and did just that !

 

[CyrusWuff]

Marylebone. Hotel is across the road but there is a cover.

I think there's also some sort of (long since blocked off) subway linking the two, presumably for delivery purposes.

 

[iain-j]

I always remember my father telling me about when he used to be a concierge in the (at the time) North British Hotel in Edinburgh and how they had a lift that took guests directly down into the station. I was very young at the time when he told me this so never fully inquired how it worked but now I would have loved to have seen photos of this lift.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Marylebone. Hotel is across the road but there is a cover.

Marylebone station (left) and Landmark Hotel (right)

I'm pretty sure the road beneath the awning is railway property and TFL or the Highways Agency have an arrangement with whoever owns it to use the road.
Unfortunately I can't think of any examples of evidence off the top of my head other than the weird parking restrictions which apply there, but I'm sure I heard it mentioned. Can anybody reading this offer any more info?

 

[snowball]

Marylebone station (left) and Landmark Hotel (right)

I'm pretty sure the road beneath the awning is railway property and TFL or the Highways Agency have an arrangement with whoever owns it to use the road.

Nothing to do with the Highways Agency, which is only responsible for trunk roads (and is Highways England now anyway).

 

[lobby ludd]

Thank you for the photo. So, as a passenger doesn't leave railway property, and is undercover, Marylebone should be added to the list.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Technically, Penychain could qualify...

 

[6Gman]

Holyhead.

Many years ago ...

 

[PHILIPE]

I believe when first built there was a direct entrance from the Crewe Arms Hotel directly onto the station, although possibly intended only for use by royalty and other special guests.

Difficult to understand as the Hotel is on the opposite side of the road unless there was a tunnel below the road.

 

[NeilWatson]

The Hallmark in Carlisle doesn't have a direct entrance to the station but it's literally no more than about 30 seconds walk.

The Great Northern Hotel at Peterborough falls into this category, separated from the station merely by the single-lane access road.

 

[Trackman]

The Midland in Manchester is directly opposite the old Manchester Central, in a similar respect.

I think it still has a secret walkway tunnel to Manchester Central.

 

[47271]

The north end of Platform 3 at Perth has a bricked up doorway which leads to corridored part of the Station Hotel. Queen Victoria passed through it apparently, as I'm sure she did with a many other of the stations and hotels in this thread.

 

[mark-h]

I always remember my father telling me about when he used to be a concierge in the (at the time) North British Hotel in Edinburgh and how they had a lift that took guests directly down into the station. I was very young at the time when he told me this so never fully inquired how it worked but now I would have loved to have seen photos of this lift.

According to a family member it used to be possible to take the lift up into the hotel and then use one of the bathrooms on the guest floors (in the days before they went all en-suit) to have a shower.

Plans of the booking hall are available from a planning application. They are too big to upload to the forum.

They show the Balmoral lift at the right hand side of the main booking hall (the opposite side from the hotel). The lift goes upto roof level, it has its plant room in the basement). It is labeled as a goods lift but was probably for passengers in the past.

From the Google aerial view (attached) you can see the walkway into the hotel and the top of the lift (square box at the top left of the booking hall building, next to the walkway).

 

[Ash Bridge]

Difficult to understand as the Hotel is on the opposite side of the road unless there was a tunnel below the road.

Yes, according to the hotel website it was a tunnel which it states is still extant although sealed up at both ends.

 

[iain-j]

According to a family member it used to be possible to take the lift up into the hotel and then use one of the bathrooms on the guest floors (in the days before they went all en-suit) to have a shower.

Plans of the booking hall are available from a planning application. They are too big to upload to the forum.

They show the Balmoral lift at the right hand side of the main booking hall (the opposite side from the hotel). The lift goes upto roof level, it has its plant room in the basement). It is labeled as a goods lift but was probably for passengers in the past.

From the Google aerial view (attached) you can see the walkway into the hotel and the top of the lift (square box at the top left of the booking hall building, next to the walkway).

Thanks for that info, it has helped me visualise what my father had always told me about it. For some reason I thought the lift went down inside the hotel and would have brought you out somewhere on the north side of the station where the current platform 1 is, which never made sense as there was no passenger platforms there until the recent Platform 1/20 was built.

 

[tsr]

It doesn't quite count but surely an honorary mention must be given to Rannoch. There's not much else near the station other than the hotel and a large amount of inhospitable bog...

 

[Timothy Turtle]

Crawley

Although I believe that is a path from the station which only leads to the hotel

Yes - there is a 'private' gate at the end of the down platform which can only be used if you are going to the hotel. Is this the most recently built hotel with a dedicated access to a station?

 

[bnsf734]

At Beeston the Victoria Hotel used to have a gate onto the platform which apparently they paid 50p per year rent for, not sure how true that is.

There is still a gate from the Victoria Hotel at Beeston onto the platform. Used it a few weeks ago. Don't think you can get a bed there any more, but you can get a good pint or several!

This gate is a recent innovation and comes with dire warnings about drinking on the platform.

 

[QueensCurve]

The hotels situated at Glasgow Central, Newcastle, and York stations have an entrance/exit that leads directly onto the station. At which other hotels can one do this ?

Forgive me if someone has mentioned this already, but the North British Hotel at Waverly (now the Balmoral) had a lift giving access to the hotel from the concourse.

We stayed at the Balmoral 4y ago this week and I homed straight in on the lift after arriving at Waverly only to see it was out of service.

I mentioned my displeasure that there was no lift from the station to the Comissionaire, he said "Sir, the hasn't been for 20y".

I understand that the railway hotels were privatised as part of the Thatcher doctrine and are no longer connected managerially to the railway, but the connections to the stations would still presumably serve their customers.

PS, the Balmoral/North British was good but pricy.

 

[najaB]

Forgive me if someone has mentioned this already, but the North British Hotel at Waverly (now the Balmoral) had a lift giving access to the hotel from the concourse.

Indeed it was mentioned already and in post #48 there was a picture that shows where the lift is in relation to the rest of the station.

 

[stut]

The Great Northern Hotel has access to King's Cross via the GNH bar (which is part of the hotel).

Charing Cross's access to what is now the Amba Hotel doesn't look particularly active:

https://goo.gl/maps/eLHmnmGVidm

If I may be permitted a trip abroad, perhaps my favourite station hotel (right in the station, too) is the Granvia Hotel in the rather wonderful Kyoto station. Actually, this station is so large, another part of it, belonging to the Kintetsu Railway has its own station hotel too!

 

[lobby ludd]

So the full list would appear to be Glasgow, Newcastle, York, Hull, Leeds, Peterborough, King's Cross, St Pancras, Paddington, London Victoria, and Marylebone. One could have a 12 day holiday, staying at a different hotel every night, without every stepping outside a railway station.
* I asked the Amba hotel at Charing Cross, who said there was now no direct access to the hotel from the station

 

[eastend43]

Slightly convoluted, but the Scotsman Hotel at the other side of Edinburgh Waverley Station on North Bridge occupies the building where the Scotsman newspaper was edited and printed. I remember seeing a book that had the architectural drawings for that building and I seem to recall that on one of the lower basement floors, it had direct access into Waverley Station (presumably underneath Market Street). I've tried checking and

http://portal.historic-scotland.gov.uk/

(type Scotsman into the search box to find the correct page)

does state that

"The plans show the direct access from the lowest level of the building to the newspaper's private railway siding at Waverley Station."

I don't know if the Scotsman Hotel goes down that far - it seems to have a pool and gym on the lower floors and that any access is probably now blocked off with all the development of that side of Waverley Station (platform 8). In the context of this thread, it would probably never have been used as a passenger entrance.

 

[Murph]

Slightly convoluted, but the Scotsman Hotel at the other side of Edinburgh Waverley Station on North Bridge occupies the building where the Scotsman newspaper was edited and printed. I remember seeing a book that had the architectural drawings for that building and I seem to recall that on one of the lower basement floors, it had direct access into Waverley Station (presumably underneath Market Street). I've tried checking and

http://portal.historic-scotland.gov.uk/

(type Scotsman into the search box to find the correct page)

does state that

"The plans show the direct access from the lowest level of the building to the newspaper's private railway siding at Waverley Station."

I don't know if the Scotsman Hotel goes down that far - it seems to have a pool and gym on the lower floors and that any access is probably now blocked off with all the development of that side of Waverley Station (platform 8). In the context of this thread, it would probably never have been used as a passenger entrance.

They have an abandoned / derelict goods siding, platform, and entrance directly below the pedestrian bridge. It certainly was directly attached to the newspaper building above, but I'm uncertain of its current status as regards ownership and access from the building. I don't believe it was ever a pedestrian route, just a private siding off the Waverley goods yard.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Don't think that anybody has mentioned Liverpool Street yet.
The Andaz Liverpool Street Hotel is the former Great Eastern Hotel and you don't have to cross a road to get into it from the station although the old direct doorways from the upper level concourse (at the 'back' of the hotel) are no longer in public use I believe.
It is certainly handier for the platforms than the Great Northern at Peterborough.