Royal Victoria Hotel, with horse drawn taxi for the station waiting outside.

Description:

Royal Victoria Hotel, with horse drawn taxi for the station waiting outside. This hotel was originally called the 'Union', and built on the site of the 'Bear'. Local people subscribed to the building project of the new Union, to be the principal hotel in the town. It has the fashionable five bays and two and a half storeys surmounted by a very shallow pediment of the period. The grapes sign at the front, even today, is the traditional sign for an inn. William Liddle came from the Red Lion to be the first hotel manager. Princess Victoria lunched here on October 27th, 1832, with her mother the Duchess of Kent, when she travelled from Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire to stay with the earl of Liverpool at Pitchford Hall near Shrewsbury. Permission was given by the royal guests for the name of the hotel to be changed to the Royal Victoria Hotel.