I am delighted that since my hiatus, the Royal has reopened and its 175 year history can continue. I was reviewing my Whitby work ready for publishing when I came across the website for the hotel. In the website is a section devoted to the history of the hotel (always promising because I think the history of these hotels is one of their main selling points). I avidly read through the notes and was immediately struck with self doubt. What if I'd got something wrong, what if I'd missed something important out? I was forced to go back to my research and double check all the discrepencies between my work and that of the hotel itself. What did I find you may well ask?
Well, I needed to add a significant figure in the MP George Elliot, who I believed needed more coverage than I'd previously given him. Then there was the mysterious Mr. H. Swift, who I'd deduced must be Hubert Swift (my reasons are given in this chapter, but hinge on his willingness to move around the country and lack of overlap in hotels he managed). Unfortunately, the Royal's website had listed his name as Henry rather than Hubert. Without any reasoning or sources on their part and extra research which drew a blank on mine, I decided to leave this unchanged. There was also a manager called Mr. Oyston on the hotel website; could this be the Mr. Houston that I had down for the same dates? Then there was the disagreement over the architects. I had researched and found that George Hudson and the Whitby Building Company used George Townsend Andrews as the architect for the new Whitby railway station in 1846 as well as the beginning of the West Cliff development (of which the Royal Hotel is part), whereas the hotel website said it was John Dobson. Here I also stuck to my guns as I could find no evidence that it had been John Dobson. I did find that John was the architect for the later phase of the West Cliff development begun after the Royal Hotel had been opened for about 20 years.
This has slowed down the publication, but it is essential that I'm sure of all my facts.
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