“Famous Liverpool name” that made way for high-rise gardens in the city centre

It is now more than 60 years since a historic building that housed a ‘famous Liverpool name’ was demolished and replaced by a new high-rise in the city centre. For decades, the Angel Hotel has been a familiar fixture on the corner of Dale Street and North John Street in Liverpool city centre.

At the time of its demolition, the building was nearly 125 years old and stood on the site of an inn that had been there over a century before. In the early 19th century, the inn was one of the termini for some of the fifty coaches that left Liverpool daily, the ECHO previously reported.

Over the generations, thousands of people from the city and beyond have passed through its doors. In 1939, the residential part of the hotel was closed and the State Insurance Company announced plans to demolish the Angel Hotel and replace it with an office block.

But just as demolition was about to begin, war broke out and the plans had to be abandoned. The Angel Hotel played a major role in the city during the Second World War and was loaned free by the State Insurance Company to the Lord Mayor’s War Fund.

It was estimated that over five years, meals were served to 5,000,000 Allied soldiers and sailors, with overnight sleeping facilities provided. During the war, the site was also said to have been used as a military club, with the bar side of the hotel remaining open.

In later years the site became known as a pub. These images, courtesy of our archives, have been hidden for years and offer a glimpse into life at the Angel Hotel decades ago.

One image shows the hotel’s entrance hall in April 1939, months before World War II began. Here, visitors can see the interior and the decor, which included an art deco ceiling and a deer head on the wall.

Another image, believed to be from the 1960s, shows the exterior of the Angel Hotel in its later years. For several generations, the corner of the city center where it once stood seems unrecognizable today.

By 1962, the ECHO reported how one of Liverpool’s oldest public houses was being demolished. On June 4 of that year, the the name of the Angel Hotel has been described as “famous in Liverpool history”.

In the article, several other spaces in the block are to be demolished to make way for new office buildings. A new Angel Hotel will be built on the same site. It is expected to be completed in about 18 months. At the time, Mrs Cora Hodson, 44, of Thingwall, Wirral, had been the licensee of The Angel.

But despite earlier reports, a new Angel Hotel has not been built on the site. Instead, an office block was built on the site of the centuries-old inn, demolished.

On 1 March 1963, the Liverpool Daily Post reported: “When it opens next year, the block will be used as the Liverpool headquarters of the Royal Exchange group of companies and will be known as State House. The tower block, which will contain approximately 40,000 square meters of housing, has been removed from the facades in order to open up the view.

“The offices will be among the first in the city to be fully air-conditioned. The architects for the development are Edmund Kirby & Sons.” Today, the State House remains on Dale Street – not to be confused with the State Insurance Building next door. But only a few generations will remember what life was like on Dale Street in the days of The Angel Hotel.