Last weekend involved a road trip up to the West Midlands

And an overnight stay in the Regent Hotel Leamington Spa, now a travel lodge.

It is a beautiful grand old lady of a building and had me wondering about it’s history. Wikipedia told me this:

In 1809, a plot of land was purchased to build the hotel on, which cost £1,000. The foundation stone was laid eight years later, on 18 July 1818 by the granddaughter of the original landowner. The hotel was officially opened on 19 August 1819. The hotel opened as Williams Hotel, but 3 weeks later was renamed The Regent by permission of the then Prince Regent (George IV). In 1830 Princess Victoria, then aged 11, apparently stayed overnight at the hotel with her father. Eight years later from the balcony of the hotel it was announced that Victoria, now Queen, had allowed the prefix Royal on its name, which the town still bears to the day. Moving to more modern times, the cast and crew of the British comedy Keeping Up Appearances stayed at the hotel whilst filming in Leamington. For some years now the hotel has been a Grade II listed building and in 1998 the hotel closed its doors. In 2003 however it was decided that the hotel was to be extensively redecorated and refurbished as part of a scheme to regenerate the surrounding area.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regent_Hotel

Leamington was also beautiful on a chilly May Sunday morning. I love the architecture and the wide tree- lined avenues.

Couldn’t live in the Midlands. The draw of the coast is too strong, not to mention the warmer climes in the South East of England. However there is still something magical about the Shires- historical and literary.