Proposed hotel at Snow Hill station, Birmingham
This article, written by an unattributed author, is taken from the April 1939 edition of the Great Western Railway Magazine. Judging from the illustration, the new hotel and station entrance would have been very impressive but, although the plans were far advanced, the hotel was never built as the outbreak of war later that year put paid to this and other schemes in the pipeline. It is interesting to note that single rooms were to outnumber doubles fivefold, probably with an eye on travelling salesmen and business men (as they would almost certainly have been at the time).
New Great Western Hotel for Birmingham
PERSPECTIVE DRAWING OF THE PROPOSED NEW G.W.R. HOTEL, SNOW HILL, BIRMINGHAM.
THE announcement that the Great Western Railway is to build a modern hotel at Birmingham (Snow Hill) station is yet another instance of the Company’s desire to provide the very best facilities for its travellers and the cities and towns it serves.
The hotel is to be constructed on the site of the building now used as divisional offices and restaurant, and will have frontages in Colmore Row, Snow Hill, and Livery Street. The building is to be a six-floored, steel framed structure and will be faced with natural Portland stone.
The facilities are to be of the most up-to-date nature and will meet a long-felt want in the City of Birmingham. The ground floor will comprise reception offices, hall, lounge, cocktail bar and cloak rooms; and the existing bar and grill room are to be improved. The first floor will be devoted mainly to public rooms, and will include a dining room with accommodation for 150 dinners, a spacious lounge and a smoke-room. In addition, there will be three private meeting rooms (which can be converted into a single dining-room with seats for 160 people), and display and stock rooms in which business houses can entertain their customers and hold trade shows. The first floor will also accommodate the kitchens.
The remaining five floors of the new hotel will contain the bedrooms, numbering in all 28 double rooms and 142 single – each with a bathroom and lavatory. There will also be a private suite on each of these floors.
Central heating, and air-conditioning of the main public rooms, will add to the comfort of patrons, and fire-proof floors will conduce to their safety. The main hotel entrance will be in Colmore Row, and there will be direct access to the booking hall forecourt on the station.
New divisional offices and accommodation for the hotel and refreshment rooms staff will complete the rebuilding scheme. Work is to start this year and, when completed, will convert Snow Hill station into one of the most imposing railway structures in the provinces.
Transcribed by Colin and Daniel Taylor, 2021
