"The rise and fall of Coventry’s legendary Leofric Hotel"

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"The rise and fall of Coventry’s legendary Leofric Hotel"

Postby dutchman » Sat Oct 09, 2021 5:38 pm

The Leofric Hotel was one of the first to be built after the Second World War and became a symbol of Britain's recovery

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Once upon a time Coventry’s Leofric Hotel was the undisputed place to be in the city.

Located in Broadgate it was a cornerstone of Britain’s recovery after the Second World War, being one of the first new hotels to be built in the post-war era.

Royalty visited and even dined there on occasion and the stars were regular guests.

It’s giant ballroom was a place where many Coventrians danced the night away and it was one of the in places to ring in the New Year.

It was back in April, 1955, that the £800,000 Hotel Leofric first opened its doors.

It was claimed to be the first to be built in a British city, using British finance, since the Second World War.

At that time all 108 bedrooms (some more were added in the Travelodge era) had electric razor sockets and 75 had their own bathrooms where female guests would find a special rail on which to dry their nylon stockings.

A single room with breakfast would set guests back 37 shillings (about £1.85) and a double room was 65 shillings (£3.25).

The first manager was a John Wearmouth whose wife was in overall charge of the housekeeping and supervised the female staff.

By the end of the first year, Mr Wearmouth estimated they had looked after 3,460 foreign visitors - nearly half of them from America.

The rest were divided between 19 other countries including Russia, Brazil, Egypt and Lebanon.

There had also been 351 banquets and “bar takings have been colossal”, admitted Mr Wearmouth.

As well as Beryl Reid, Tommy Cooper and Gracie Fields - for whom barman Ray invented a gin and cointreau concoction called Our Gracie - other famous guests included Harry Secombe, Dolly Parton, most of the Rolling Stones and Tommy Steele.

By 1962 hotel owners Ind Coope Ltd wanted to expand but Coventry City Council was refusing planning permission.

Barrister George Grove told a public inquiry at the Council House that the Leofric was more heavily booked than any hotel outside London.

Council planners continued to resist the extension to 200 bedrooms but in the end were overruled on appeal to the Minister of Housing and Local Government.

It turned out to be all a fuss about nothing because by 1965 the £300,000 plan to add 80 extra bedrooms had been scrapped in favour of a £50,000 facelift.

Another blow came in 1971 when the hotel failed to win a place in that year’s Good Food guide - it was small consolation to be among 500 others hotels and restaurants all over the country which were left out that year.

By 1973 there was a whiff of controversy in the pages of the Coventry Evening Telegraph after the Leofric’s hair salon introduced male stylists - for women!

And a year later Peter Guillard’s Eating Out column in the paper harked back to the hotel’s haute cuisine days of T-bone steaks in the Silver Grill with fresh carnations for the ladies and an enormous bone, neatly wrapped, to take home for the dog.

The column concluded that even in 1974 you could still get a good four-course meal for £3 including VAT.

By 1983 the dining room had undergone a £100,000 refurbishment and another £30,000 was spent on redesigning the popular Ray’s Bar.

Then came the 1990s - not the greatest period in the hotel’s history although it could still boast the biggest ballroom and conference facilities in Coventry.

By 2001 the hotel had been taken over by the Derbyshire-based Menzies group and given a £2.5million refurbishment in a bid to recapture four-star status.

Sadly that was not to be and Travelodge took over, before Mercia Lodge converted the rooms into student flats.

The most recent time the legacy of the Leofric Hotel resurfaced was in 2017 when a new climbing wall opened in its former ballroom.

Brothers Ben and Sam Prior transformed one of Coventry’s grandest and most forgotten about rooms to create a new indoor climbing facility.

And in a nod to its illustrious past named it The Ballroom Climbing Wall.

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dutchman
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Re: "The rise and fall of Coventry’s legendary Leofric Hotel"

Postby Blitzkid » Thu Feb 24, 2022 6:29 pm

Dutchman, I don't see Bill Owens name there, he was the only one that made a film in Coventry. he stayed at the Leofric when organising, or whatever of the building of the Belgrade theatre, around 1955 or so. and not a mention. kaga.
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Re: "The rise and fall of Coventry’s legendary Leofric Hotel"

Postby dutchman » Thu Feb 24, 2022 7:03 pm

Blitzkid wrote:he was the only one that made a film in Coventry


You mean this one?

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