~Hotels.~--This French-derived name for inns, from what Hutton says on
the subject, would appear to have been only introduced in his day, and
even then was confined to the large coaching-houses of the town, many of
which have long since vanished. The first railway hotel was the Queen's,
at the entrance of the old railway station, Duddeston Row, though
originally built and used for officers for the company's secretaries,
directors' boardroom, &c. As part of the New Street Station, a far more
pretentious establishment was erected, and to this was given the title
of the "Queen's Hotel," the Duddeston Row building reverting to its
original use. The Great Western Hotel was the next to be built, and the
success attending these large undertakings have led to the erection of
the handsome Midland Hotel, opposite New Street Station, and the still
grander "Grand Hotel," in Colmore Row, opened Feb. 1, 1879. The removal
of the County Court to Corporation Street, and the possible future
erection of Assize Courts near at hand, have induced some speculators to
embark in the erection of yet another extensive establishment, to be
called the "Inns of Court Hotel," and in due course of time we shall
doubtless have others of a similar character. At any of the above, a
visitor to the town (with money in his purse) can find first-class
accommodation, and (in comparison with the London hotels of a like kind)
at reasonably fair rates. After these come a second grade, more suitable
for commercial gentlemen, or families whose stay is longer, such as the
new Stork Hotel, the Albion, in Livery Street, Bullivant's, in Carr's
Lane, the Acorn, the Temperance at the Colonnade, and the Clarendon, in
Temple Street, Dingley's, in Moor Street, Knapp's, in High Street,
Nock's, in Union Passage, the Plough and Harrow, in Hagley Road, the
Swan, in New Street, the White Horse, in Congreve Street (opposite
Walter Showell and Sons' head offices), the Woolpack, in Moor Street,
and the other Woolpack, now called St. Martin's, at the back of the
church.