The Felixstowe Flyer FelixstoweFlyer_Jun2018_For_Web | Página 19

The Orwell
The Hotel
Flyer
A new era for an old girl…
July 2018 will see The Orwell Hotel
turning the ripe old age of 120 years.
Plans are afoot for grand celebrations
so although no information is available
as we go to print, please do watch out
for details in the local press, on social
media or from the hotel.
In all the years she’s stood proud
opposite the town station, The Orwell
Hotel has seen the world change as
well as having some changes herself.
Within just a short period of being
built changes were being made. One
was to convert the lofts above the
stables into staff accommodation and
then attach them to the main building.
Another was a brick built pagoda
added to the side of the building
overlooking the rose garden. This area
was changed again in the late 60s
when the new ball room and extra
bedrooms were added.
There was once a large sunken garden
used as a putting green, croquet lawn
and grass tennis court. Part of the
garden still remains for guests to enjoy
and the rest was paved to make the
car park.
Stabling towards the back of the
building, on the High Road side,
is where up to 20 horses could be
fed, watered and stabled, then, as
the motor car took over, the stables
and yard area were turned into a
garage space. In the 70s this area
was changed again when another
extension was built to provide a larger
restaurant and more
bedrooms. The stable
buildings are still there,
now used as workshops
and storage, and the
cobbled fl oors remain
along with a few other
things to remind us of
their former use.
There are two large cellars
which also bare traces of
the hotel’s former history.
You can see the black
P le a s e m e n t i o n ‘ T h e F l yer ’ wh en r esp o n d in g t o ad ver t isements
trails and arched openings of the coal
chutes as well as areas that would
have been used for cold storage. These
have also been converted for modern
use as boiler rooms and bar cellars.
The original grand opening stated
that all rooms had “electric bells and
speaking tubes”, which must have
been important as the 32 bedroom
hotel only had two bathrooms! With
the additional bedrooms built in the
60s and 70s, tastes had changed and
the rooms all had en-suite bathrooms
fi tted and radios above the beds.
The hotel has been a fi gurehead at
the entrance to the town, welcoming
people travelling by horse, train and
latterly car and has “lived” through
many world events. She has seen
the sinking of the Titanic, two world
wars and even man travelling to the
moon, but she has serenely watched
it all, taken all the updates, upgrades
and refurbishments in her stride and
will continue to do so as she begins
a new adventure, a new era, with her
new owners. We can’t spill the beans
on what happens next, and only time
will tell what the future holds but you
can visit the hotel and be there, see
the changes and be part of the new
history.
The picture shows the hotel in 1966,
before the extensions were built, and
was used as the front cover of the
hotel’s advertising leafl et and later as
a postcard. The other picture shows
the 1911 census with the hotelier, his
family, servants and even two hotel
guests.
T H E FLY E R | JU N E 2 0 1 8
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