Building record 5680 - Station Hotel, Station Road, Ellesmere Port

<1> Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council, 2007, Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council Local List of Historic Buildings, LL57 (Index). SCH5437.

Station Hotel, Station Road, Ellesmere Port
Date: 1908 and earlier
Description: Built around an earlier (1760?) Georgian house, perhaps a lodging house before the railway was built, white render with black corner quoins. Large red brick extension to south side of original house (extension dated 1908) with decorative stone surrounds to windows and parapets. Mock curved Dutch gable to front elevation similar to railway station. Single storey entrance extension in front of original Georgian building brick and stone to match Hotel extension and adjacent “Long Bar”.
Condition: Good
Current Use: In use as pub with landlord’s accommodation over.
(Updated January 2007)

<2> Rose Business Services Ltd, 2021, The Station Hotel, Ellesmere Port: An Historical Report, R4670 (Client Report). SCH9363.

Assessment and photographic record of The Station Hotel, Ellesmere Port, a Locally Listed Building, originally built as a hotel to service the railway and, from 1972, used as a public house. Study includes 'The Station Hotel' book written by local historian Carl Collier detailing the early years of the hotel. At the time of survey, the hotel was in a poor condition having been vandalised over a number of years resulting in access to the interior being limited. Within the interior little remains of historical interest, however, the external design is more distinctive, with the main original building and its subsequent extension displaying interesting juxtaposition and quirky detailing, particularly to the front and side elevations. There is also some interesting carved stonework.

The hotel was built in 1875-6 as the 'Empress Hotel' (1876 to 1887), subsequently renamed as 'McGarva's Railway Hotel' (1887 to 1892), then the 'Railway Commercial Hotel' (1892 to 1907) and finally the 'Station Hotel' (from 1907). It was built by Samuel Street, a retired Birkenhead licensee. In 1883 it was sold to Edwin Griffith Stanway, and then in 1884, it was again sold to John McGarva. The heyday of the hotel was around the turn of the century and, in 1907, an extenson on the station side of the hotel was started and completed in 1908. At this time, the name of the hotel also changed to the 'Station Hotel'.

The pub started to suffer from the construction of the Westminster Bridge in the 1960s, which diverted much passing trade. The pub was not rooted within a residential area, with the nearby Westminster district somewhat divorced. Whilst the pub was sustained by workers from surrounding industrial sites, these slowly closed as the twentieth century progressed. Eventually, by the late twentieth century, almost all local industry had closed and there was insufficient trade from passers by or local workers to sustain the operation of the pub.