This handsome structure was once a landmark in hotel planning. It was the first hotel built especially for railway passengers. Isambard Kingdom Brunel planned a terminus for his Great Western Railway north of the cathedral close, convenient for the docks. Passengers from London could stay in the Royal Western Hotel before embarking on the Great Western for America. In the event the station was built elsewhere, and the hotel closed in 1855. Appropriately enough it now houses Bristol City Council’s planning department.
