Description

This is a bit of a puzzle. It publicises two LNER London hotels, at Liverpool Street and King’s Cross. That at Marylebone was requisitioned for government offices during WWII, and never reopened. The booklet is therefore post-war, but before nationalisation on 1st January 1948, but nowhere does the text mention the war, or the vast amount of bomb damage still visible in the City.

Furthermore, the booklet has the rubber stamp of a Berlin Travel Agency. One would not have  thought that there would be many Berlin customers for holidays in London, so soon after the conclusion of hostilities.

The illustrations show most of the more popular tourist attractions. And there are two pages of “Places of Outstanding Historic Interest Within Easy Reach of London”.  Also, a page devoted to Scotland, which sportingly mentions the LMS “Royal Scot” train to Glasgow, as well as the LNER’S own “Flying Scotsman” service to Edinburgh. A plug is also given to the LMS Caledonian Hotel in Edinburgh, although in second place to the LNER’s own North British… No mention is made of the LMS Hotel at Euston! The LMS hotel at St. Pancras had closed before WWII, being too old fashioned to modernise at reasonable cost.

PREVIEW BELOW – MAY TAKE A WHILE TO LOAD.