Grand Hotel

Scope and Content

The Grand Hotel has 156 bedrooms and was the largest hotel in Wales until 1976. It was opened in 1901 on the site of the old 'Bath's Reading Room and Billiard Hall', built in 1855. The Western Annexe which became the Bath's Hotel in 1879 was demolished in 1900. The rubble was used to fill up what was then Britain's biggest indoor swimming pool. This opened in 1884 beneath the Pier Pavilion. On the 5 December 1973 an Irish arsonist caused £200,000 worth of damage by lighting a fire in room 414. He was caught and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Original Index No. D0372.