British Transport Hotels

However, on 1 July 1948 they were separated from direct railway control and placed under British Transport Commission's Hotels Executive, chaired by Lord Inman, who was later succeeded by Sir Harry Methven.

Further change occurred in 1962 with the abolition of the BTC and the transfer of its rail businesses to the newly established British Railways Board.

In the event only one such hotel was opened – the Old Course at St Andrews – in 1968 before further expansion was stopped by the Conservative government elected in 1970.

Following the victory of the Conservative Party at the 1979 general election, led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and the deteriorating economic situation, pressure was put on nationalised industries such as British Rail to consider asset disposal.

As Peter Land notes in his book Sauce Supreme, politics rendered this plan impossible and the hotels were sold by open tender, realising a much lower value for the UK taxpayer than the management buyout would have done.