"[2] W. Davison, writing in 1822, stated that the White Swan was "the principal inn ... at which the mail and union coaches stop, and all the posting on the great north road.

"[3] In 1852 Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland brought in the architect Anthony Salvin to remodel his family seat at Alnwick Castle.

The hotel has undergone various extensions and renovations, including one in 1936 when its then owner, Algernon Smart, bought various elements from the decommissioned RMS Olympic and incorporated them into the fabric of the building.

The attic storey has a row of nine dormer windows, five of pedimented style edged with carved side scrolls, alternating with four of circular form.

The walls were panelled with finest English oak carved with delicate boiseries decorated with scrolled floral-and-shell ornamentation, rather than the gilding that would have been seen in the French originals.

At one end of the lounge was a non-functional grey marble fireplace with a carved mantelpiece and a curb of a pierced scroll-and-shell pattern, measuring 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) wide in total.

The equivalent lounge on Titanic was described by The Shipbuilder magazine as a place where, during voyages, "passengers will indulge in reading, conversation, cards, tea-drinking and other social intercourse."

The room's decoration was crafted by joiners and artisans working for the Belfast shipbuilders Harland & Wolff, either in sheds at the shipyards in Queen's Island, now the Titanic Quarter or brought in from outside contractors.

[9] This was not as long or elaborate as the more famous forward Grand Staircase, as depicted in the 1997 film Titanic, but was decorated in a similar style, again in finely carved English oak.