It's now been almost 60 years since a popular Liverpool hotel, which became loved for its famous hotpot recipe, was demolished.
The Royal Hotel was a family run business that once stood at the entrance to Lime Street Station, alongside a number of other businesses, before they were knocked down in the late 1960s. In its heyday, the Royal was a busy hotel with five bedrooms for guests and a public bar and saw thousands of guests pass through its doors.
It's hard to date exactly when the Royal Hotel was built, but one of its earliest references to the hotel appears in the Liverpool Albion newspaper in 1856, the ECHO previously reported. But during the early part of the 20th century, it was run by and home to Henry – known as Harry – and Jane Winslade and their four children.
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Jane and Harry's great-grandson, Dell Winslade, has since researched his family's history there in the early 1900s – with the help of stories passed down by his grandmother, Mabel and his late mother, Doreen. As part of the Liverpool ECHO's How It Used To Be series, we spoke to Dell Winslade, who grew up in Southampton, about the history of the Royal Hotel and what life was like in the city for his family decades ago.
Dell, 60, told the ECHO: "The family ran the hotel and they lived in it as well. My mum, Doreen, it was her mother Mabel who was one of the children who grew up in the hotel and she told my mum about life there and various things that happened
"My gran had three brothers and she was like the tomboy of the group. They loved living in the hotel, it was a very popular hotel at the time.
"Her father Harry was the head man of the hotel and he was quite a stern guy, but a very fair man. Her mother was called Jane and she assisted in cooking the meals for the guests.
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"Mabel was the eldest of the four with her three brothers. The eldest lad was Tommy, he was kind of a quiet lad, Bill was the next one, he was a bit of an adventurous type always getting up to mischief and the youngest was Fred and he loved cats, he had three of them."
Through the decades, the Royal Hotel saw many who were travelling arrive at Liverpool Lime Street Station and book in for the night, as well as Merseyside locals visit. Standing in the city centre for generations – and before more hotels began to appear around the region – the Winslade family saw Lime Street's rapid development.
At one point in time, a flurry of new theatres, cinemas and other businesses opened around the Royal Hotel. This included The Futurist cinema, The National Milk Bar, an early incarnation of Marks & Spencer and more.
But it was inside the hotel that the family's "famous hotpots" were made, which according to archives newspapers, were particularly popular with local taxi drivers. Dell said: "The ground floor was with a guest in mind.
"There was a large bar and coffee lounge which was used by ladies who wouldn't go into the bar – I'm not quite sure what the reason for that was. It was used in the mornings for breakfast for the guests.
"The ground floor at the back had a large kitchen and scullery and that's where they became known for making hotpots which was a favourite Lancashire dish. Mabel would help her mother out occasionally with the cooking and stuff and she got to learn how to do it at a very young age.
"The first floor were the family rooms. The front of the hotel was pretty much their living quarters and at the back were the bedrooms.
"They had hotel staff working there too, they had a head barman who was sort of a night porter, a handyman and a jack of all trades. There was also a housemaid and a kitchen maid and a cleaner."
The Royal Hotel was a lot different to the Liverpool hotels we know today, given it was such a historic building and how technology, fashion and life would have been over a century ago in the city. But rare images, courtesy of our archives, Mirrorpix, show what the hotel looked like, frozen in different moments in time.
Some have never seen what Lime Street looked like with these now-lost buildings. Dell and his mum, Doreen, specifically researched the lives of the Winslade family, spanning the years 1911 to 1919.
During the outbreak of the First World War, the family run hotel bore witness to the global tragedy played out through the lives of the people who came and went there. At the time, the hotel was one of the few places with a telephone – becoming a central hub for news and communications during the war.
Following the end of the war, the Royal Hotel remained part of the city for decades. But in its latter years, Dell said it transformed into a pub, following the retirement of the Winslade family.
It was in 1967 that the buidling was knocked down, making way for a larger entrance to Lime Street station, as seen in an archived photograph courtesy of Mirrorpix. It's now been over 50 years since the Royal Hotel welcomed its last guest – but its story lives on.
Dell and his mum, Doreen, began writing a book to preserve the memories of the Winslade family. After his mum died in 2020, Dell said he was "compelled and determined" to finish the project.
Dell said: "It was interesting to write about it and I was glad I was able to help mum when I could with it. It was very important to mum that this carried on and I think she’d be pleased to know it’s a book
"My sister finds it interesting as well and we always go back to Lime Street station and sort of look out and think that's where the hotel used to be. We can picture it in our heads. It’s a nice feeling to think that they lived in this hotel, they worked in it and it is part of history."
The Royal Hotel, by Dell Winslade, is available to buy in most UK bookshops, such as Waterstones, which you can visit here. Published by Liverpool based publishers World of Creative Dreams, it can also be purchased directly from the publisher's website here.
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