Local Iconic Hotels: A Brief Journey Through Time

At number 100 Duke Street stands the imposing six-storey high former Great Eastern Hotel (above), which was built in 1849 as a cotton mill for R. F. & A. Alexander, designed by architect Charles Wilson. A school was built next to the mill for the workers’ children, which later became Ladywell Primary School. It was a modestly priced hotel for men in 1907, with an extensive conversion providing accommodation for 450 people in cubicles. Other facilities included a dining room for 100 people, laundry, reading and recreation rooms, and a billiard room with eight tables. In the basement, a roller-skating rink was installed. By the second half of the last century, the Great Eastern had become a hostel for homeless men, and in 2001 it was closed. It became a venue for exhibitions before being refurbished for housing.

In the early 1960s, the Dalriada Hotel was built on Edinburgh Road by hotelier Reo Stakis. It had seven bedrooms, a function room capable of holding up to 500 people, and reputedly one of the longest bars in Scotland. It had a seven-day drinks licence and a full programme of live entertainment. It also catered for small parties and funerals. It was demolished in the 1990s. Near to the Dalriada stood the Stepps Hotel, dating from the 1960s, with bedrooms and function suites, built on the site of a hamlet known as Bertrohill. It later became known as The Phoenix, which was demolished in 2004.

At numbers 603 to 613 Gallowgate stands the Bellgrove Hotel (right), opened in 1937 by Lord Provost John Stewart. The five-storey structure was designed in the Art Deco style by architects McNair & Elder and cost £26,000 to construct. It was intended for working men, many of whom were employed by Glasgow Corporation. Facilities included a dining hall, open to the public with aproned waitresses in attendance. After the Second World War, a German Army tank driver named Herbert Rank became a long-term resident at the hotel. Into the 1970s, the Bellgrove Hotel went into decline, and by 2000 many of its occupants were dealing with unemployment and alcohol issues, and it was considered the worst hotel in Scotland. Bad publicity citing living conditions and large payments in housing benefit to the owners, as well as prank reviews which saw the Bellgrove listed among the top 100 hotels in the UK, compounded the problems. It was rat-infested and squalid, and at the time of writing, it is undergoing demolition, a sad end to a ‘B’-Listed architectural gem.

A popular venue in the East End is the Fullarton Park Hotel, previously known as the Sandmyle at 1230 Tollcross Road. It was built as a villa in the 1890s and was once owned by local doctor Dugald McKinlay. The hotel has six bedrooms, a restaurant, a dining area for 100 people, and a function suite available for weddings and celebrations.

Picture credits: Bellgrove Hotel - Norrie McNamee; Dalriada newspaper advert 01/07/1964 - Evening Times; Great Eastern - The Glasgow Story