Adelphi Hotel

Where Roy Rogers’s Trigger took a bow

When the Adelphi opened, in 1914, it was the most luxurious hotel outside London. The grand scale of the present building, larger than its two predecessors on the site, is a testament to Liverpool’s importance in early-20th-century transatlantic travel, when its customers were wealthy passengers en route by ship to America. The once elegant rooms have seen better days, but the ghosts of a more glamorous past hover around the public rooms on the ground floor, and in some of the bedrooms that have not been modernised. From the marble entrance hall, a set of steps makes a dramatic approach to the vast top-lit Central Court, which is lined with pink marble pilasters and tall archways opening onto restaurants on each side. Beyond this is the impressive Empire-style Hypostyle Hall.

The Adelphi shot to fame in 1997 with the excruciating reality TV docusoap, Hotel, which recorded the back-of-house antics of the unruly staff. It memorably featured an indoor barbecue that smoked out the banqueting hall, leading to acerbic verbal exchanges between the chef and the deputy manager, who coined the famous catch phrase “Just cook will yer.”

Many famous guests have stayed at the hotel, including Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Frank Sinatra, Laurel and Hardy, Judy Garland, and the Beatles. Bob Dylan can be seen waving to his fans from the balcony of his room at the Adelphi in the documentary Don’t Look Back. The most unusual guest was the cowboy Roy Rogers’s horse, Trigger, who visited his master’s bedroom on March 8, 1954. Rogers was in bed with the flu and felt too ill to greet his many fans who were gathered outside on Lime Street, so Trigger stood in, rearing up on his hind legs outside the front of the hotel. The celebrity quadruped then mounted the staircase and took a bow from a first-floor window, much to the delight of the onlookers.

Address Ranelagh Place, Liverpool L3 5UL, +44 8712220029, www.britanniahotels.com

Getting there 5-minute walk from Lime Street station; 3-minute walk from Central station | Tip The Central Pub, opposite Central station at 31 Ranelagh Street, has an eyecatching interior lined with Victorian glasswork, mirrors, decorative plasterwork, and panelling.