Five decades of welcoming the great and good
The DoubleTree by Hilton Bristol City Centre Hotel – formerly the Dragonara – recently celebrated its 50th birthday. Martin Powell looks at the hotel’s story and at just a few of the big names who visited down the years.
AHOTEL created in Bristol’s city centre, incorporating the last remnants of Bristol’s historic glass industry, has just celebrated 50 years in business.
The DoubleTree by Hilton Bristol City Centre Hotel started out as the exotically-named Dragonara and boasted of being the city’s largest hotel when it opened its doors in April 1973 as the last word in luxury and sophistication.
The 50th anniversary celebrations took place in The Kiln Restaurant, which has remained a centrepiece of the hotel – still a popular place for business conferences with many make-overs and changes over the decades.
Many famous faces have been recorded attending events or staying at the hotel over the half-century, including Princess Diana, Muhammad Ali, Margaret Thatcher, Terry Wogan and Don Cameron.
Over the years the hotel has been at the centre of Bristol’s social scene and hosted many international events. In the 1970s and 80s it hosted Casino Nights and Cathay Pacific Beauty contests and has always provided meeting rooms for business decisions that changed the face of commerce in the city as well as social meals in the restaurant.
In 1982 it was the place where Bristol City Football Club’s “Ashton Gate Eight” agreed to tear up their contracts to enable the football club to survive.
The brick cones, synonymous with Bristol’s Blue Glass industry, stood on the site before the hotel was built and the one incorporated into the Kiln restaurant first appeared on the city’s maps around 1780.
By 1812 it was redundant as a glass kiln and was used as part of H and T Proctor’s fertiliser factory. Glass from the kiln was likely to have been traded with New England, Virginia, Portugal, Spain and Northern Europe. American independence dealt a blow to the Bristol Glass industry, and it went into decline.
When the Dragonara opened much was made of incorporating the kiln into the hotel to form a unique restaurant, which is still serving customers today.
The Dragonara was part of an international chain operated by Ladbroke, with other Dragonaras opening in Teesside and Leeds the
Muhammad Ali at the Dragonara in June 1979. He had flown into Lulsgate on his private jet and was visiting on a speaking tour same month. The name came from a Maltese Palace.
The first manager was Bryan Zealey, who had trained at the Grosvenor Hotel in London. He was there to greet Muhammad Ali when the boxing legend attended an event at the hotel in 1979.
At opening the hotel boasted of 210 centrally heated guest rooms and five studio suites each with colour television and direct dial phones. Prices for a single room were £5.50 a night including service charge with the suites a heady £11 for those in the money, it included 24-hour service.
As well as serving visitors the hotel had a solarium and sauna where Bristol people could book a massage and five squash courts that were open for Bristol people to book.
The Phoenix Suite banqueting room was designed so that it could be divided to cope with different size functions while the Kiln Restaurant was soon to become a popular venue for celebration meals for many people in the city.
There have been many changes and refurbishments over the years, the latest this year saw a £50,000 upgrade to gym facilities with some of the new equipment provided with the specific needs of disabled guests in mind.
Focus Hotels, who now manage the DoubleTree by Hilton Bristol, said the move was also to accommodate a growing number of toplevel sports teams, who have been staying at the hotel, including the England Women’s Cricket team, Indian Women’s Cricket team, England Women’s Rugby team, Italian Women’s Football team, New Zealand Women’s Cricket team, Manchester City Women’s Football team and many more.
The anniversary event was attended by Peaches Golding, OBE, Lord-Lieutenant of the County and City of Bristol, who cut a cake with her ceremonial sword.
Imran Ali, General Manager of the hotel, said: “Over the past 50 years this hotel has survived a global pandemic, seen seven global recessions, two monarchs and more prime ministers than it might have expected to see.
“Ultimately, the hotel is just bricks and mortar. It’s the team members who are the soul of this business.
“We are proud to have reached this milestone and very much look forward to being a major part of Bristol’s hospitality sector for many, many, years to come.”