Winterbreak Weekends, Great Holiday, Great Hotels, Great Value London poster – 1978

Poster: British Transport Hotels – Winterbreak Weekends, Great Holiday, Great Hotels, Great Value London poster

When it opened in 1837, Euston became London’s first inter-city railway station. It was the terminus of the London and Birmingham Railway (LBR) that was engineered by George Stevenson. With great foresight, the first two railway-owned hotels anywhere in the world were built at Euston. The idea was simple. Build a hotel to provide accommodation and food to the businessmen, workers and visitors that will be transported to and from the city.

The hotel industry was a lucrative business, adding significant profit to railway companies’ profits. In the 1930s, the LMS Hotels and Catering Service ran nearly 30 hotels across Britain. They employed 8,000 staff and served over 50 million customers per year. It earned the LMS more than £3 million in receipts (equivalent to more than £190 million in 2020).

The two Euston hotels for the London and Birmingham Railway were designed by Philip Hardwick and were opened in 1839. The Euston on the west built for the lower classes had basic facilities, whilst the Euston on the east side of the station entrance was built for first-class passengers. A third hotel, the Queen’s Hotel, was built at Birmingham Curzon Street at the other end of the line. The success of these hotels ensured that many other railway companies built hotels. By 1913 there were 93 railway-owned hotels across the country.

With many significant changes over the years such as the grouping act, alternating governments, the amalgamation of the Big Four railway companies, their nationalisation and denationalisation, the Beeching Axe and changes in committees and boards the hotel aspect of the business seemed to get lost. By the time this vintage railway poster was created in 1978 what had been 93 railway-owned hotels in 1913 had dwindled to just twenty-nine.

However, twenty-nine hotels were still enough for British Transport Hotels to offer Winterbreak Weekends at London, Edinburgh, St Ives, York, ‘and many other cities and resorts. The unknown artist has created an updated, vintage-style poster to attract the reader’s attention. The poster’s image hints at Peter Collins 1958 Monsal Dale railway poster and features an inter-city 125.

Our posters are carefully and professionally created from vintage originals. Whilst great care is taken in the production of these posters, we also try to maintain a vintage feel, so there may be small imperfections, fold marks, scuffs, tears, or marks that were part of the original poster master. If these do appear they should be visible on the larger views of the item on this listing. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints.

The 50x70cm version has been specially produced to be used in conjunction with Ikea’s 50x70cm Ribba picture frame which currently retails for around £12. So you can bag a print and frame for a great price.