The Lost Hotels Of Conwy County!

Sadly all of these hotels have been demolished or are awaiting demolition

The Bee Hotel above and below is a 300-year-old welsh Coaching Inn, the Ist of its kind in the area, a campaign has been started to save it, however, Conwy Council refuses to bring in the local listing, and Cadw claim, that it has been altered too much, The campaigners disagree with this statement,

It sits in a conservation area but is sadly owned by Anwyl who plans to tear it down for social housing.

Here is the petition...https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-bee-hotel-and-coach-houses-from-being-demolished

Above the 70 Degrees in Old Colwyn torn down in the last 20 years, has four or five blocks of flats built on the site.

It had a stunning view, my wife had her leaving do there with her NHS workmates. It was a lovely do, the hotel closed a few weeks later.

It should have been taken over by a Hotel chain, instead, they build that awful Travelodge in the Bay and demolish this hotel that had far more to offer! Crazy.

St Enochs Hotel, Colwyn Bay. The hotel had been restored just before it was put on the market, sadly property developers bought it and tore it down for a block of social housing. 

With the staycation boom, hotels along the seafront would now do well, but sadly there are non-left in Colwyn Bay or Rhos on Sea!

Pwll y Crochan Hotel, Colwyn Bay, was a boarding school and will soon have its insides ripped out for flats.

Below is The Victoria Hotel, a Grade II listed building, it was left to rot by the owners and Conwy Council sat back and did nothing. Suddenly a small part of the rear collapsed and then it was torn down for yet more social housing flats. Criminal.

The Eidelweiss hotel in Llandudno, despite a huge campaign to save it, no one listened, it was torn down for a block of OAP special needs flats.

The stunning Craigside Hydro in Llandudno was criminally torn down for a 70s housing estate.

The Penmorfa is stunning with the middle part of the house being the holiday home of Alice Liddel that inspired Alice in Wonderland.

Anwyl developments claimed it was beyond repair and tore it down for flats, the land still stands empty after a huge backlash against the much-reviled company. see http://the-real-alice.blogspot.com/2015/09/penmorfa.html

Colwyn Bay, Plas Y Coed Methodist Guild Guest House below, The owner of the hotel was found guilty of arson and jailed, the hotel was never restored and was torn down for social housing.

The Colwyn Bay Hotel housed the headquarters of the Ministry of Food in the 1940s.

The Colwyn Bay Hotel (pictured right) was built in 1873 and was designed by John Douglas (1830-1911), who also designed St Paul's Church and other churches in the area. The hotel was demolished in 1974-5 to make way for the present block of flats.

During the Second World War, Lord Woolton, the Minister of Food, had his office here. Ministry departments housed here included the Establishment Department, where the staff was hired for all the other departments, the Cocoa & Chocolate Wartime Association Department, and the Communications Division. All the coded messages from all British Embassies throughout the world were sent here and distributed by messengers on bicycles to the other hotels where other Ministry divisions were housed. There was no central heating and the offices were warmed by open fires which had previously been used to warm the hotel bedrooms.

Experiments were carried out in the hotel kitchens to find ways of making palatable food that was often discarded. Some of the less disastrous results were featured in a Ministry booklet, Food Facts for the Kitchen Front. Among them was brains on toast, using parsley sauce to disguise the pieces of brain.

The Cocoa & Chocolate division was run from the hotel by the deputy chairman of confectioner Rowntrees. One of its products was the Personal Points Scheme, authorized by prime minister Winston Churchill in 1942 to ensure that everyone had an equal share of treats, including people who were too busy working in munitions factories and other vital jobs to devote time to chasing after sweets.

The Ministry continued to use the hotel building until 1953, after which everyone returned to Guildford, Surrey, from where they had come. From...https://historypoints.org/index.php?page=site-of-colwyn-bay-hotel

Actor Cary Grant stayed at the hotel when he was still called Archie Leach and was performing at the Victoria Pier with a Troup.

Also Queen Victoria stayed at the Grande hotel.

The Red Gables in Penmaenmawr, is a stunning hotel that overlooked the sea. It was marred for a short while due to a murder that took place there, sadly it was torn down in the last 20 years for a block of flats.

Waterloo Hotel, Betws-y-Coed, was sadly torn down in 1975, for no real reason it appears! another stunning building that was lost.

There are hotels that are missing, but I will add more, it is a sad reflection on what we have lost, and how had these stunning buildings still been in use it would have encouraged more tourism.