A home from home for our NHS heroes
LAURA MCKENZIE AND HER FAMILY, WHO RUN CATHEDRAL HOUSE – A BOUTIQUE HOTEL A FEW MINUTES FROM GLASGOW ROYAL INFIRMARY – HAVE PROVIDED MEALS FOR HARD-WORKING HOSPITAL STAFF
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, Laura McKenzie had a flood of cancelled bookings at her Glasgow hotel, Cathedral House.
The McKenzies had spent 18 months building up business at the boutique hotel, which offers a luxurious “home from home” atmosphere, so they were shattered.
But within days, Laura, who runs the hotel with husband Shane and two of their children, Callum, 21, and Anna, 18, was inspired to help staff at nearby Glasgow Royal Infirmary.
First, they block-booked rooms for hospital staff at a reduced rate.
Then, with the help of a donation from Celtic FC Foundation, they set to work making meals for them.
“I made a few calls and straightaway we had the team we needed to start producing the meals,” she says.
“It was probably 10 days from thinking, ‘This is horrific, this is the end’, to thinking, ‘We can do something good and support the local hospital here’.”
Laura, 52, knows the pressure NHS staff are under because her daughter Emily, 24, is a junior doctor in Dundee, so she was desperate to help.
With the hotel’s staff all on furlough, Laura assembled a team of volunteer chefs from the city. The Red Onion’s patron/chef John Quigley was one of the first to step forward and Laura worked with the head nurse at the Infirmary to set up a menu.
“We decided we were going to do 100 meals a day,” she says. “We did 30 veggie options and 70 meat options and bought little takeaway tubs and labelled them all up with little stickers that said ‘With love from Cathedral House’. And every night at quarter to seven, the driver from the hospital would come and take the big boxes of food away.
“He said there was always such a buzz. People were like, ‘Oh, the food’s coming! What have we got today?’”
The hotel has now delivered more than 4,500 dishes such as jambalaya, bangers and mash, and Thai curry. “It was a simple menu, all cooked fresh with lots of veggies, and the sort of dishes you’d cook for yourself when you get home from work,” says Laura.
Doctors staying at the hotel were delighted because Laura would text them to see if they wanted a dinner putting aside – and they could pop down to the kitchen to collect it.
Laura’s homely hospitality was a real comfort to her guests.
“We had a couple from Stornoway who had a really premature baby and they were air-ambulanced down to Glasgow. One of our rooms was empty and the hospital said, ‘Could you look after this couple for us?’” she says. “God love them, they were absolutely shellshocked. I said to pop down to collect a meal and they were so grateful.” Laura has been thrilled
It’s just like neighbours helping each other – it’s a nice position for us to be in.
with the response from NHS staff. “We’ve had so many thank-you cards, emails and nice comments for people at the hospital,” she says. “I hope that once we get back to some level of normality the staff will come in on Friday night for a drink. Being in a city, it is just like neighbours helping each other and it’s a nice position to be in.”
Now Cathedral House is beginning to open up to the public once again, starting with takeaways on July 4, and Laura hopes to make use of their generous outdoor space.
The boutique hotel is big on little touches, such as fresh flowers in the rooms, comfortable beds and lovely linen and toiletries.
And, as the McKenzie family have proved during the crisis, the warmest hospitality in town.
See cathedralhouseglasgow.com