New Chapter for the Lion Hotel

Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, Eric and Ernie, and John, Paul, George and Ringo have one thing in common.

They were all guests at Shrewsbury’s Lion Hotel.

Not all at the same time, of course. 

Although, if a spot of time-travelling could make such a thing happen, what a hoot that would be!

Now, this disparate bunch might not have too much to talk about if, through some fluctuation in the space-time continuum, they all met up in the Lion’s elegant ballroom - although… who knows?

At the very least, if they all bumped into each other now, they could discuss among themselves how The Lion has changed since their last visits.

And that’s not all.

Darwin would be able to explain to Morcambe and Wise how Ernie’s ancestors had evolved over the millennia, leaving him with short fat hairy legs.

And The Beatles and Charles Dickens would be able to compare Hard Times (1854) to A Hard Day’s Night (1964). Or perhaps they could join forces to produce 'Oliver Twist and Shout'.

But I’m getting carried away.

However, there is surely one thing on which they would all be united.

They would all be united today in their amazement when told (by their time-travelling co-ordinator) that the Lion Hotel has just been sold to a company in Bangkok. 

You see, nowadays, we’re all used to hearing about ‘the shrinking world’ and about how quickly one can travel from one side of the planet to the other. We’re used to the internet and online banking and multinationals. Deals being made at the touch of a button.

But Dickens and Darwin would surely have been shocked at how quickly things have moved on since their day.

And even since the heyday of The Beatles, technology has been dazzling in the speed of its growth and expansion.

So we citizens of 2015 probably don’t find it odd at all that one of our historic English hotels has just been snapped up by a firm in Thailand.

This kind of thing happens all the time nowadays.

Mmmmm.

Although (and you can call me old-fashioned) it does still rather baffle me, actually.

I just find it puzzling that a firm based in Thailand would have even heard of a hotel in Shrewsbury, let alone wish to buy it!

Anyway, this great hotel has been purchased for an undisclosed sum by the Thai group, the Fico Corporation.

The lovely, Grade I-listed building on Wyle Cop has hit trouble in recent years after its previous owner Howard Astbury was ordered to put it up for sale to pay off debts totalling almost £300,000. It was initially put on sale in 2011 for £2.95 million, but finance firm Duff and Phelps, appointed as trustees of the estate, has not disclosed how much the hotel went for.

Gavin Wright, director at Christie & Co’s Birmingham office, which handled the sale, said: “We are delighted to have secured a sale with an investor who is keen to keep the Lion Hotel operational and refurbish the property. The sale of the hotel demonstrates there are a number of overseas investors with a keen appetite to acquire hotel assets in the UK.”

Fair enough. Or as dear old Eric Morcambe would have said: "Wey-hey! Get out of that! You can’t, can you?”

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Phil Gillam’s gentle novel of family life, Shrewsbury Station Just After Six, is available from Pengwern Books, Fish Street, Shrewsbury, and from Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery.