The Royal Clarence hotel in Exeter was given the venerable title after it burned down recently – but a number of other places make the same claim. So who has bragging rights?
When news broke last weekend that the Royal Clarence hotel in Exeter was burning down, it was met with an outpouring of public sympathy – and confusion. The building was repeatedly referred to as the oldest hotel in England, leading some people to wonder: “Hang on – I thought I’d stayed at the oldest hotel in England. And it wasn’t in Exeter.”
Establishments in Norwich, Derbyshire, Cambridgeshire, Gloucestershire and more all claim the title – and at least two, The Old Bell, in Wiltshire and The Olde Bell in Berkshire, even share a name. Which begs the question: just how many oldest hotels in England does England have?
Continue reading...