The Royal Hotel is a Grade II

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

hotel on a prominent corner of St Mary Street/Wood Street in the centre of

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

, Wales. It is Cardiff's oldest grand hotel.

History and description

The hotel, by C. E. Bernard, was built between 1864 and 1866. An opening dinner was held on 3 July 1866 attended by 60–70 influential local residents. The Royal Hotel was initially run by a Mr and Mrs Sprawson. At the time of its construction there was another Royal Hotel in Cardiff, known as the Old Royal Hotel and located in

The Hayes The Hayes ( cy, Yr Ais) is a commercial area in the southern city centre of the Welsh capital, Cardiff. Centred on the road of that name leading south towards the east end of the city centre, the area is mostly pedestrianised and is the location ...

. The new 1860s building was four storeys high (plus an attic) in an

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

style. In 1890 an additional storey plus an attic were added to the corner of the building. This increased the number of bedrooms from 70 to 120, with a modern

lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobil ...

and servants rooms on floor six. On the first floor was a banqueting room to seat up to 400 diners.

Captain Scott's farewell dinner

On 13 June 1910, two days before

Robert Falcon Scott Captain Robert Falcon Scott, , (6 June 1868 – c. 29 March 1912) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the ''Discovery'' expedition of 1901–1904 and the ill-fated ''Terra Nov ...

's ship departed from Cardiff for his ill-fated expedition to

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

, a fundraising dinner for the expedition took place at the Royal Hotel, hosted by Cardiff Chamber of Commerce. A plaque next to the St Mary Street entrance commemorates the event. The first-floor function room in which the event took place (previously called the Alexandra Room) was renamed "The Captain Scott Room" in 1982, after a chance discovery of a menu from the banquet. The Cardiff-based Captain Scott Society was founded in 1983 as a result.

21st century

The hotel closed in 2001 and underwent a full refurbishment in preparation for the centenary of Scott's farewell banquet in 2011. A new bar was opened, named ''Fitz's'' after Pat Fitzgerald, a baby who was abandoned in the lobby of the hotel in 1939 and subsequently adopted by a local steelworker and his wife. In 2013 a hive of

honey bee A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosm ...

s was installed on the roof of the hotel and given its own room number, 6B. This followed an action plan produced by the

Welsh Government , image = , caption = , date_established = , country = Wales , address = , leader_title = First Minister () , appointed = First Minister approved by the Senedd, ceremonially appointed ...

to try to halt the decline of the honeybee. The 2015 edition of the ''Rough Guide to Wales'' says of the Royal Hotel "this Victorian building conceals a modern interior; the bold red-and-black furnished rooms and limestone-finished bathrooms are well appointed, if somewhat devoid of charm." It currently offers 60 bedrooms.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Hotel buildings completed in 1866 Hotels in Cardiff Grade II listed buildings in Cardiff 1866 establishments in Wales