Finally!
Here are some photos of the long gone Royal Hotel kindly sent all the way from New Zealand by Carl Watson. I’d always presumed that the Royal Hotel was located where The Royal cul-de-sac is today, off Beach Road. As you can see the hotel was on Stanley Road, facing the Royal Liverpool golf course.
Does anyone know if the hotel offered luxurious accommodation? What happened to the old place …did it become rundown and neglected or was it sold off, demolished and the land redeveloped? Share your comments below.
Some really excellent photos, the best I’ve seen. It’s a handsome building – the architrcture is similar to the houses in Valentia Road. There’s a lot of furniture being moved. Was this a clearance sale following closure I wonder.
What is the sign above the Bar entrance? Could it be The Locker Room?
The hotel faced Stanley Road but its grounds extended to the shore. It was demolished in the Spring / Summer of 1958 (almost complete by the end of July) and the replacement houses (The Royal cul-de-sac and the handful facing Stanley Road) appeared very quickly. Some were occupied by Nov. 1959 to my certain knowledge.
For many years there had been a number of elderly permanent residents but towards the end I think only the bar was functional. It certainly looked very run down and I’m sure its fortunes faltered from as long ago as when the Golf Club built its own clubhouse
Ah Charles you have answered the question that immediately popped into my head – I was wondering when this fine old building was removed since I don`t remember it at all. The fine architecture of so many buildings along Stanley Road is a fond memory – especially since out here on the west coast of Canada we have a dearth of buildings older than one hundred years (the town I live in, for example, was effectively founded as a community in approximatley 1906). It`s wonderful to look back at my old home town and appreciate its qualities from this perspective! Fantastic archival photos!
They always had a bonfire on Bonfire Night and the parents went in the bar, while we kids enjoyed the fire.
A well loved Hotel by the residents of Hoylake particularly when a Golf Tournament was on the The Royal Liverpool Golf Course.
The pictures of the Royal Hotel in Stanley Road brought back memories for me. I remember it well and recall when it was demolished and housing being constructed on the site. The Hotel was reputed to be haunted! The figure of an elderly man dressed in the fashion of the late 19th century was often claimed to have been seen walking through the hotel. The figure would pass through a doorway but would not be seen beyond that if someone followed out of curiosity.
hi could anyone direct or tell me about The Gothic Towers that was also on stanley road really would like to know more about this house and land
Hi Luke
There is a reference to The Gothic Lodge in Stanley Road on page 8 of The King’s Gap Conservation Area Appraisal (see http://www.wirral.gov.uk/my-services/environment-and-planning/built-conservation/conservation-areas/-kings-gap) which says the house was one of those demolished and replaced in the 20s or 30s.
The 1871 map on page 7 in The Meols Drive Conservation Area Appraisal Appendices shows a building called The Gothic Cottage on the corner of Stanley and Courtenay Roads ( see http://www.wirral.gov.uk/my-services/environment-and-planning/built-conservation/conservation-areas/meols-drive ). I assume that this is the same property as The Gothic Towers; perhaps it acquired a grander title as it was extended over the years?
Studying the other maps indicates that the building was still there in 1909 but the present house had taken its place by 1927. The former tennis court in the gardens to the rear backing onto Barton Road was developed with an additional smaller home in the 1970s.
Hope this helps. Would be very interesting to see a photograph of the old house.
Peter
Hi Luke,
I have just found this on the internet as I was googling Gothic Towers Wirral Point. My Great Grand father Bertram Wood Jones had Gothic Towers built, and a Lighthouse off the Wirral. Do you have any more information or a picture. I live in Suffolk and so not know the area up there.
Thank you Claire
Dear peter wilson thankyou this has been a great help the reason am so curious is i know the residents of the house now built on this land and gothic towers kept creeping up in conversations plus while doing some work in the garden i found very posh blue titles and very well masoned brickwork so am really curious on what the gothic towers/cottage look like, also i had some info that the gothics towers was on fire at some point ( trying to authenticate this )
Most interesting. Good luck with your search and do post up anything you find!
What wonderful information. I believe my family moved into 4 the Royal (second on the right backing onto the beach) back in 1959/1960, I would have been 5 or 6 years old. I am not quite sure as I found a postcard sent to me by my father when in South America postmarked early May 1959, and this was sent to our old address in Bromborough. The house (No 4) was built for my Father by his company Land & Marine, and I believe the architect was a Dutch architect.
I remember your family. My ‘best friend’, John Fox, lived at No. 3 directly opposite! The Ruddlestons were at No.1, the Meakins at the end and the Arthurson’s was the last house on the beach side.
Peter,
Correct, John Fox or Commander Fox RNR as we all knew him was also teaching at the school we (me and my 2 brothers) went to; Liverpool College. If my memory is good, I believe he had a daughter called Sally and a younger son.
Jan Weijburg (The youngest of the three Weijburg boys)
It was Commander Jack Fox, his wife Nancy and the two children were Sally and my friend John.
Peter,
I still have fond memories of Jack Fox looking out of his bedroom window with his ex WWII German UBoat binoculars surveying the vessels coming into the Mersey. A very stately sight!
Jan
Jan, I remember those binoculars very well!
I am Sally Fox( now Guest) , I live in Ilkley and still have the German u boat binoculars. Last saw Peter at my mothers funeral in 2017, I remember puppet shows in your attic!
Hi Sally,
Tried to contact a Sally Guest running a B&B in Ilkley.
Is this you?
Jan
Jan
No!! But my email is sal. Guest@hotmail. Co . Uk, would love to hear from you
I knew a Weijburg from that address who was at Kingsmead School at that time. I think he would have been about eight in 1959 so is he your elder brother ?
Charles
I am sorry but once more correct. I believe this would be my middle brother Jaap (1950), as my elder brother Aart (1947) would have been to old.
Jan Weijburg
Jan,
Yes it was definitely Yaap whom I remember and I can also confirm that your family was living in that house by November 1959. Yaap is the only one I remember at Kingsmead; did you and your eldest brother also go there ? I recall Julian (& Lisa) Sterck lived near to you and that a lady called Anita used to give them a lift (and me sometimes) to school. I knew nothing else about her except that she was Anita and drove a Triumph Herald.
Where are you and your brothers now, and what are you doing ?
Charles
This is brilliant! My parents owned number 4 The Royal from 1988 to 2007; my Dad knew something about your family as the original owners! When we were there Nora Arthurson was still living in number 8, and still walking into West Kirby along the beach every day! I believe she passed away after 2007, but my parents went to her 90th birthday party at the golf club!
Emma,
Yes my father’s company Land & Marine built No 4 The Royal back in 1957/1958. We moved in from Bromborough in mid 1959.
The house was built by a Dutch architect, which might explain the big windows. I loved the place and still wish my parents had not sold it.
My father loved it as well and I used to go on evening walks with him along the shore to Red Rocks and back via the Royal Liverpool golf course.
Very very happy memories.
Jan Weijburg
Hello Jan, I am Emma’s father. I thought you might be interested in a couple of pictures from the sales particulars when we sold No 4 in 2007. As you may remember it was ideal for having guests to stay (A number of our friends invited themselves to stay when the Open Golf was staged at the Royal Liverpool in 2006!). The photo of the view out towards Hilbre Island shows that at low tide the sea could be very far out. But at a Spring high tide with a strong breeze behind it we would have waves breaking over the garden wall!
Whoops! Forgot to attach the photos! and when I look I can’t see any facility to do so.
Trevor,
Yes the Royal Liverpool… Knew it very well! As a toddler we used to hide in the bunkers at the 14th (‘The Alps’, short hole along the Dee going toward Red Rocks). When golfers went for the green we would dash out and steal their ball. It certainly augmented my pocket money in those days. This was about 1960 to 1962.
I also remember well the Open in 1964 (I think) when the Argentinian Roberto de Vicenzo did and incredible drive over the out-of-bounds (driving range) on the 16th to win the Tournament. My Parents had South African business friends over to stay as well.
Jan
My Uncle Ernest Albert Newton owned it sometime later that 1945 when he was awarded
freeman of London.
He was an architect [b 1898] in Rodney st L/pool
I remember Golden wedding of my gr parents ther and 21 or Greta Newton my cousin in about 1950
phil newton
Phil Newton again [21 10 2020]
There was a locker room I saw on a photo of I have of the removals firm packing up the furnishings
and a classic car in the drive.
My cousin Greta Newton painted in oils, a view from an upper floor of the 17th hole and the [newer ] clubhouse opposite –
Her father ,my uncle Ernie was brother to my my uncle Fred Newton who played golf with Douglas Bader in postwar Borneo.
Ernie lived in Beech House round the corner in Kings Gap.-I have photos from 1945 of them and my Dad Arthur -in the garden with steps down to the sea . He also gave him the Rushwoths upright piano probably used for dance bands at the Hotel –
Veteran WW1 veteran of a L/pool reg Ernie drove around in a RR Silver Cloud -or Ghost -1927 ish and his son Ernest Andrews Newton [brother of Greta ]jun ran an antiques shop in Hoylake .
The last story of my late sister Marian`s memoirs “Streets were made for Playing “describes her 1939 Hoylake holiday with my Dad the week before Hitler marched into P. Sept Poland as my Mother gave birth to me was born in L/pool.
pn
Ernie lived in Beech House Kings Gap with steps down to the sea. . I remember streching up on tiptoe up to see 3uncles and my dad playing g billiards and I’d just seen pinocchio and jomminy cricket hiding down a pocket.ernie was a Wirral cllr. I’ve a 1st edition of the course history.