The Great Western Hotel is the oldest purpose-built hotel in

Newquay Newquay ( ; ) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is a civil parishes in England, civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries with an airport and a spaceport, and a fishing port on t ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

. The hotel was originally designed by the Cornish architect Silvanus Trevail and first opened in April 1879. The hotel is built in a prominent position overlooking Great Western Beach. The hotel has 66 rooms, some with sea-views.

History

In December 1877, the local newspaper reported that the owner, had commenced building the hotel, near Newquay railway station,'Newquay News' -Royal Cornwall Gazette - Friday 21 December 1877 In January 1879 the hotel was completed and it officially opened on 7 April 1879. It was the first in a string of hotels designed to appeal to the renewed interest in Cornwall as a winter resort for the middle classes.

Royal Visit

On a tour of Cornwall in May 1926, The Prince (

Edward VIII Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January ...

) met the Duchy tenants at the hotel, and took tea with them in company with Sir Walter Peacock, Mr. Webster, Mr. Stainer, Duchy stewards. In 2024, a

commemorative plaque A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, bearing text or an image in relief, or both, ...

was unveiled to honor the building as Newquay's first hotel and its original architect, Silvanus Trevail.

Architecture

The original 1879 building resembled a large country house with pitched roofs, gable ends and attic windows. In 1931 the original modest two storey gabled building was altered beyond recognition to the current symmetrical art-deco style building, consisting of three storeys with smooth external render, painted frontages,

symmetrical Symmetry () in everyday life refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, the term has a more precise definition and is usually used to refer to an object that is invariant under some transformations ...

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s and rusticated

quoin Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

detailing to corners. The Hotel is recognised as a historic building and is recorded on The Historic Environment Record of Cornwall.

Great Western Beach

Before the railway came to Newquay in 1876, the beach was known as Bothwick Sands. It wasn't until the Great Western Hotel was built in 1879, (overlooking the beach) that it gradually became known as Great Western Beach, although on many Ordnance Survey maps and holiday guides until the 1960s both names were mentioned. Despite the name being linked to the hotel, the beach is a public amenity.

References

{{reflist Hotels in Cornwall Newquay Hotels established in 1879 Hotel buildings completed in 1879 1879 establishments in England Silvanus Trevail buildings