Grosvenor Hotel Bristol: 9 incredible photographs capturing history of destroyed hotel from 1907 to today
The prominent hotel featured on many postcards 100 years ago
The Grosvenor Hotel was opened in 1875 and offered the perfect place for an overnight stay or lunch and a drink for travellers using Bristol Temple Meads, which had opened 35 years earlier.
At its peak, the 70-bedroom hotel would have been one of the first grandeur sights greeting newcomers to the city with all the hallmarks of Brunel thanks to it being designed by his former assistant, architect S C Fripp.
Records show that 100 years ago it would cost guests eight shillings and sixpence for bed and breakfast, which is about £35 in today’s money.
But the hotel hit hard times with it becoming isolated by road infrastucturewhich also saw a fly-over taking vehicles close to bedroom windows. It changed hands several times over the decades, and noteably appeared in the 1979 film Radio On.
In the late 1980s it became a bed and breakfast for the homeless before, in 1993, closing its doors on safety grounds. On October 18, fire ripped through the old hotel, leaving the structure in tatters.
Here’s a look back at the hotel through the years in a selection of pictures:
1. The very beginning
Planned drawings for the hotel, which opened in 1875. It was the work of architect S C Fripp, who had worked as Brunel’s assistant on designing the nearby Temple Meads station. (Source: Know Your Place)
2. In its prime
An advertising postcard for the hotel published in 1907. Spot the tram lines on Victoria Street outside. (Source: Know Your Place).
3. Victoria Street
A look back on the history of the Grosvenor Hotel with pictures from 1907 to 2022
4. Watch the traffic outside
A family looks to cross the road, maybe to the hotel, in 1916 in this Vaughan postcard (Source: Know Your Place)