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.
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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 Board, 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.
On vesting day, 1 January 1948, the British Transport Commission took over several dozen hotels from the private railway companies, including (these lists are currently incomplete):
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 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.