Midland Hotel, Morecambe
N 54° 04.325 W 002° 52.511
30U E 508167 N 5991548
The Midland Hotel is often described as the best example of an art deco hotel in England. Originally built on the site of another hotel called The Midland.
Waymark Code: WM3Y7K
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/04/2008
Views: 82
Re-opened after a sympathetic refurbishment on June 01, 2008. The old London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company was responsible for the Midland Hotel and decided to replace the existing Victorian building with a more modern structure. In January 1932 it approved plans for a new hotel to be built on the seafront at a cost of just under £72,000.
The LMS saw Morecambe as an opportunity to make a new departure from traditional hotel design and selected the architect Oliver Hill to provide the company with "a building of international quality in the modern style". Work commenced in August 1932, the new building rising from the lawn in front of the old hotel before the latter was eventually demolished some months later.
In some ways Oliver Hill was not the obvious choice for the project. He had been trained in the 'Arts and Crafts' tradition and had only recently been converted to 'modernism'. Moreover, he had no previous experience of hotel construction.
Nevertheless, he readily accepted the commission from the LMS observing "you have here a unique opportunity of building the first really modern hotel in the country." Hill realised that the new hotel would give him a chance to put into practice his vision of unity in architecture and decoration.
Link
Midland Hotel History (
visit link)