The Regent Hotel is a hotel in the town of

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is located in the centre of the town on the Parade.

History

In 1809, a plot of land was purchased to build the hotel on, which cost £1,000. The foundation stone was laid eight years later, on 18 July 1818 by the granddaughter of the original landowner. The hotel was officially opened on 19 August 1819 by Mrs Greatheed, wife of the previous landowner Berties, accompanied by actress

Sarah Siddons Sarah Siddons (''née'' Kemble; 5 July 1755 – 8 June 1831) was a Welsh actress, the best-known tragedienne of the 18th century. Contemporaneous critic William Hazlitt dubbed Siddons as "tragedy personified". She was the elder sister of John ...

. The hotel opened as Williams Hotel, but 3 weeks later was renamed The Regent by permission of the Prince Regent (later

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

). In 1830 Princess Victoria, then aged 11, stayed overnight at the hotel with her father. Eight years later from the balcony of the hotel it was announced that Victoria, now Queen, had allowed the prefix ''Royal'' on its name, which the town still bears to the day. The hotel then had more than 100 rooms. The first of the Regent Hotel's set of sporting visitors stayed at the hotel on 8 April 1882. These men had held a few other meetings around the county and had formed a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

team. It was on this date however that

Warwickshire County Cricket Club Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Warwickshire. Its T20 team is called the Birmingham Bears. Founde ...

formally came into existence. The Directorate of Camouflage, part of the

Ministry of Home Security The Ministry of Home Security was a British government department established in 1939 to direct national civil defence, primarily tasked with organising air raid precautions, during the Second World War. The Ministry for Home Security was headed ...

moved its main base in early 1940 from London to the hotel and requisitioned the hotel until 1947. The Directorate brought 250 artists, designers and technicians to the town who worked in secret on aspects of military and civilian camouflage. In the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, according to Billy Wright's autobiography ''Captain of England'' the

England national football team The England national football team has represented England in international Association football, football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by The Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in Engl ...

used to meet before they travelled to away matches abroad. More recently the cast and crew of the British comedy ''

Keeping Up Appearances ''Keeping Up Appearances'' is a British sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke. It originally aired on BBC1 from 1990 to 1995 with two specials airing in 1997 and 2008 on PBS. The central character is an eccentric and snobbish middle class so ...

'' including

Patricia Routledge Dame Katherine Patricia Routledge, (; born 17 February 1929) is an English actress, singer and broadcaster. For her role as Hyacinth Bucket in the BBC sitcom ''Keeping Up Appearances'' (1990–1995), she was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award f ...

Clive Swift Clive Walter Swift (9 February 1936 – 1 February 2019) was an English actor and songwriter. A classically trained actor, his stage work included performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, but he was best known to television viewers for ...

and Geoffrey Hughes stayed at the hotel whilst filming in Leamington.

The Hotel today

The hotel was designated a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in 1953. The hotel closed in 1998 and its demolition was considered, which generated local opposition. In 2003 the hotel was refurbished as part of a regeneration scheme, reopening in March 2005 with 54 rooms. The total cost of the work was £3 million. Although the facade had changed little, most of the ground floor now houses a

Wagamama Wagamama (stylised as ''wagamama'') is a British restaurant chain, serving Asian food based on Japanese cuisine. History The first Wagamama was opened in 1992 in Bloomsbury, London, founded by Alan Yau, who subsequently created the Chinese rest ...

restaurant,Local newspaper report on the opening of the restaurant
/ref> although it also contains a small café. The hotel itself, occupying the other floors, is a

Travelodge Travelodge (formerly TraveLodge) refers to several hotel chains around the world. Current operations include: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and several countries in Asia. However, many of t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Regent Hotel, The Hotels in Warwickshire Grade II* listed buildings in Warwickshire Grade II* listed hotels Buildings and structures in Leamington Spa Hotels established in 1819 Regency architecture in England 1819 establishments in England