The development was a central part of the corporation's plans to reposition Beaumaris as a fashionable seaside resort in response to its declining maritime trade.

Planned in the 1280s, and constructed from 1295 by Edward's master builder, James of St George, the settlement replaced the historic Welsh capital of Llanfaes.

[1] Beaumaris's location, and natural harbour, encouraged maritime trade and in the Middle Ages the town flourished as a port and the customs hub for North-West Wales.

[2] By the early 19th century this trade was in decline and the town's council sought to reinvent Beaumaris as a seaside resort.

[4] Later additions to the hotel were made by P. Shearson Gregory at the very end of the 19th century, and in the 1930s the architect Sidney Colwyn Foulkes extended the building.