The wonderful white hotel is having a birthday party, although the naked nymphs and shepherds of Eric Gill can't be there.
"It rises from the sea like a great white ship, gracefully curved," wrote Lord Clonmore in the Architectural Review, when that wonder of Morecambe, the Midland Hotel, received its first guests in 1933.
It still does, whiter and cleaner than for years after renovation by Urban Splash; albeit the developers' hopes of new building nearby have the Friends of the Midland up in action.
The hotel is now getting ready for its 80th birthday, and hoping that former guests or their families and descendants may be able to contribute memories, letters or bits and bobs such as writing paper taken from bedroom folders or soap from bathrooms, for a commemorative exhibition. There is much to go on. In its golden age in the late 1930s, when the Depression and very slow recovery kept many wealthy holidaymakers in the UK rather than on the Riviera, streams of famous names came and stayed.
Country Life described the sweeping spiral leading to upper floors as "a fairy staircase which one would willingly climb until it reached Heaven." The décor was in keeping, with sculpture by Eric Gill, murals by Eric Ravilious and textiles by Martha Dorn. The architect Oliver Hill designed everything down to the towels and doorhandles, whose details compensated for what those with memories of florid Victoriana considered the 'austere' modern style.
The hotel, whose inapposite name comes from the old London Midland and Scottish Railway which commissioned it, was also the summer seat of plutocrats from Bradford, and in my cub reporter days my newspaper the Bradford Telegraph & Argus opened a summer office there.
Their artistic tastes led to the toning down of Gill's original designs for the entrance lounge bas-relief. Entitled 'High Jinks in Paradise' this showed discomfortingly large numbers of naked youths and girls prancing around; it was changed to the more Bradfordian 'Odysseus welcomed from the Sea by Nausicaa', with the princess offering the naked adventurer a set of (no doubt worsted) clothes.
The hotel was admired all over the world, a welcome boost for Morecambe which has since been repeated by the restoration and, to a cosy extent, the siting of Graham Ibbeson's Sunshine Dance statue of Eric Morecambe nearby. The Midland's general manager Matt Stanaway is now hoping for as many mementos as possible: snaps of Coco Chanel, Wallis Simpson or Noel Coward, maybe; or menus stashed away with the homegoing buckets and spades. He says:
The sort of things we are looking for are photographs, letters and postcards from the golden era of the 1930s, as well as other items such as original towels, napkins, cutlery and menus. Anything really which former guests might have kept for sentimental or nostalgic reasons to celebrate or record their time at The Midland.
It has always been a fabulous venue for parties, balls and weddings, as well as an historic destination for honeymoons and family holidays. We're just as keen to hear from people who have a story or specific memory about The Midland which they would like to share.
Anything lent will be returned after the anniversary exhibition, even if it shouldn't have been taken in the first place.
Please spread the word. And if you have anything to contribute, please contact the Midland via email group.digital@englishlakes.co.uk, Facebook page or 'phone 01524 424000.