The Grand Metropole Hotel is a large hotel in Blackpool, England, the only hotel to sit directly on the shoreline. One of the two oldest hotels in Blackpool, work originally began in 1776 on what was then named Bailey’s Hotel it opened in 1785 and is now owned by Britannia Hotels.
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In 1776, Lawrence Bailey a farmer from the Layton area of Blackpool began work on a hotel by the shore. Construction was completed in 1785 and, on June the 14th, Mr Bailey began advertising his hotel in the Manchester Mercury newspaper.[1][2]
The hotel opened with 34 Bedrooms, three dining rooms, and a coffee lounge.[1] At the time it was one of only 4 hotels in the fledgling resort. Of those only 2 remain; Bailey’s Hotel, which became the Metropole, and Forshaw’s, which became the Clifton Arms and is currently run as a Travelodge. The other two hotels, Hudson’s and Hull’s Tavern, were later converted into department stores and remain in retail use today.[1]
In 1826, the hotel was purchased by a Robert Dickson and was renamed the Higher Royal Hotel. However this name was short lived 1852
In 1852, was taken over by Robert Rossall, who renamed it Rossall’s Dickson Hotel then soon afterwords (at least by 1867) reverted to the name Bailey’s.[1] In 1856, Blackpool's first promenade along the beach was created this ran from the hotel to the Houndshill area, and was constructed of asphalt. In 1870 this was upgraded with a cobbled granite sea-wall on top of which the promenade sat. The construction of the promenade now left the hotel in an enviable position as all other hotels were on the landward side of the promenade whilst Bailey's sat on the shore. In 1885 when the trams arrived, they followed the line of the promenade taking the landward side of the hotel, on 12 March of that year the first section of track was laid directly outside the hotel.[1]
The hotel underwent renovations in 1873, with an additional wing to the East, and again in 1876 with the construction of shops on the landward side. In 1900 the building underwent substantial renovation resulting in it expanding to twice its previous size and taking on the Victorian appearance it retains to this day.[1]
In 1875, the town's first council meeting took place in the hotel.[3]
In 1896, the hotel was purchased by JT Murray, and was renamed "Hotel Metropole" the name it still retains, in 1900 it was sold to Spiers and Pond Limited. In 1939 the government requisitioned the hotel as part of the war effort in 1947 The Metropole Hotel (Blackpool) Limited Company was formed, when F Price purchased it back from them.[1]
In 1955 Billy Butlin purchased the hotel for his Butlin's chain [1][3] In 1998, Butlins sold their hotels to Grand Hotels and the name changed to "Grand Metropole Blackpool", in 2004 Grand Hotels sold the Grand Metropole Hotel to Britannia Hotels along with other former Butlins Hotels such as the Grand Hotel (Scarborough) and the Grand Hotel (Llandudno).
Today the hotel has 209 bedrooms, and has been totally modernised. It has two restaurants and a coffee lounge, plus a games room with snooker table and darts boards.[4]
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