Bispham Hotel, Blackpool

The Bispham Hotel was built by a local councillor, J R F Hill, and has sold Sam Smith's beers from the start. Councillor Hill included two monograms of his initials in the design of the building. Here is an extract from a report in the Blackpool Gazette and Herald, Fylde News and Advertiser: 21 December 1935.

"The new Bispham Hotel will be opened on Monday (23 December 1935). Councillor J R F Hill, who is the proprietor of the new Bispham Hotel, has had erected in Bispham a building which adds to the dignity of a street in which there have been many improvements in recent years.

"The imposing main entrance is in Red Bank Road, and access to the hotel is gained through swing doors. A lofty hall, in which the main bar of Austrian oak is installed, is the first thing to meet the gaze. On either side of the main entrance are two rooms, a snug and a ladies' room. It is characteristic of the hotel that the rooms are large, airy and light. Over the main saloon bar there is a glazed dome, and the floors of the saloon bar, the ladies' room, the snug, and the order department on the ground floor, are of rubber. Even a Lancastrian clog dancer could not make a noise on these floors!

"The entrance hall and the public bar are of quartzite and oak block tiles respectively. The saloon bar is large and commodious ... the public bar, to which access is gained from Warbreck Drive, is also spacious. On the first floor are private rooms and a large room to be used as a lounge."