British Transport Hotels - Midland Hotel, Derby : leaflet nd (c1955 : artwork by C W Bacon
From a series of brochure/leaflets issued by British Transport Hotels in c1955 descriing their 27 'city hotels' in contrast to their 'country' ones - these are listed on the reverse of the folder. For many Victorian railway companies an important element of their marketing was the availablity of an hotle associated with a major railway station, primarily for the use of business travellers. Many built or enabled the construction of an hotel associated with their station, and others bought property to use. The companies for many years either directly operated or leased out operation of such facilities and this continued into the post-1923 'Grouping' era. The Big Four continued to push hotels, as part of their wider catering and refreshment businesses, with the LMS building new ones and the LNER renovating many of theirs.
However wartime delapidations and post-war changes in travelling habits left many of the railway hotels slightly down at heel and the newly nationalised railways, who marketed the hotles under the British Transport banner, had a lot of catching up to do. As this leaflet notes 'constant modernisation' was under way to bring these properties up to scratch. The bulk of these hotels were part of the privatisation and disposal of railway hotels in 1982/83. This leaflet is for the Midland Hotel in Derby that was, unsurprisingly associated with the Midland Railway for whom Derby was the headquarters. The hotel, opposite the main station, is still there and indeed a couple of years ago I stayed there!
C W Bacon (1905 - 1992) was probably, in the 1940s and '50s, one fo the most 'seen' and recognisable artists and illustrators in the UK - if only as his work was much commissioned by the BBC for inclusion in the weekly Radio Times.
British Transport Hotels - Midland Hotel, Derby : leaflet nd (c1955 : artwork by C W Bacon
From a series of brochure/leaflets issued by British Transport Hotels in c1955 descriing their 27 'city hotels' in contrast to their 'country' ones - these are listed on the reverse of the folder. For many Victorian railway companies an important element of their marketing was the availablity of an hotle associated with a major railway station, primarily for the use of business travellers. Many built or enabled the construction of an hotel associated with their station, and others bought property to use. The companies for many years either directly operated or leased out operation of such facilities and this continued into the post-1923 'Grouping' era. The Big Four continued to push hotels, as part of their wider catering and refreshment businesses, with the LMS building new ones and the LNER renovating many of theirs.
However wartime delapidations and post-war changes in travelling habits left many of the railway hotels slightly down at heel and the newly nationalised railways, who marketed the hotles under the British Transport banner, had a lot of catching up to do. As this leaflet notes 'constant modernisation' was under way to bring these properties up to scratch. The bulk of these hotels were part of the privatisation and disposal of railway hotels in 1982/83. This leaflet is for the Midland Hotel in Derby that was, unsurprisingly associated with the Midland Railway for whom Derby was the headquarters. The hotel, opposite the main station, is still there and indeed a couple of years ago I stayed there!
C W Bacon (1905 - 1992) was probably, in the 1940s and '50s, one fo the most 'seen' and recognisable artists and illustrators in the UK - if only as his work was much commissioned by the BBC for inclusion in the weekly Radio Times.