The Increase and Improvement of Ambleside Inns
In the early days of Lakeland tourism, there was a distinct lack of comfortable accommodation in Ambleside. In 1769 Gray describes an almost comic situation: “I now reached Ambleside, eighteen miles from Keswick, meaning to lie there; but on looking into the best bed-chamber, dark and damp as a cellar, grew delicate, gave up Windermere in despair, and resolved I would go on to Kendal directly”.
The lack of accommodation in Ambleside is a continuing theme throughout this period. Sara Hutchinson, sister-in-law of Wordsworth, writes in August 1813, that “It has been truly ridiculous to see the numbers of Carriages driving along — and Ambleside has been as full of Lodgers as it could hold — even to overflowing”.
But the situation was improving. John Robinson in his Guide to the Lakes, 1819, describes how “During the summer season Ambleside is a place of favourite resort, on account of its central situation for making excursions to many of the lakes, as well as for its excellent accommodations”.
Ambleside had three principal hotels — the Salutation, the Commercial (later the Queen’s Hotel) and the White Lion. The anonymous author of A picturesque tour of the English Lakes, 1821, records that “The Salutation inn is spacious and airy, and keeps several post-chaises... The White Lion, the second house, has good stabling, some ponies, and a number of beds; and lodgings may also be had at several other public-houses”. A visitors book, kept by the Salutation Inn, records guests visiting from as far away as the U.S.A. and as close as Grasmere.
Advertisements included in a third edition of Martineau’s guide, 1866, show how the inns themselves competed for tourists, with new and improved facilities. The Salutation advertised itself as “FOR FAMILIES AND TOURISTS”, while the Queen’s Hotel boasted that it was “THE ONLY HOTEL IN AMBLESIDE THAT COMMANDS A VIEW OF LAKE WINDERMERE” and “the only Hotel in Ambleside with Hot, Cold, and Shower Baths”.
Advertisement included
in the third edition of Harriet Martineau, A complete guide
to the English Lakes, 1866,
The Wordsworth Trust.
William Green, Salutation Inn, Ambleside: William
Green, 1809, The Wordsworth Trust.