The theme for this year’s Heritage Open Days is Routes, Networks and Connections, and this month’s highlight shows how England and France were growing closer together in the early years of the 20th century. Just as this year’s Paris Olympics may have inspired many British viewers to plan holidays to France, a recently catalogued item reveals how the London Olympics of 1908 inspired tourism to Berkshire!

We have a delightful advertising brochure for Skindle's Hotel [sic – it was usually called Skindles Hotel without the apostrophe], Maidenhead Bridge which was actually just over the river in Taplow, Buckinghamshire. It was produced in c.1908-1910 for potential tourists from France and is written in French, though not entirely accurately. It was not produced for spectators at the London Olympics as it refers to the Olympics having been recently held at Shepherd’s Bush in London - these were the 1908 Games. There is also a reference to the Entente Cordiale which had forged a new link between England and France.

Details of how to get to the luxury hotel from central London charmingly refer to 'le ''tioube'', qui est le metro Londonnien' [sic]) as travelers could go by public transport from the Shepherds Bush Exhibition tube stop to Paddington, catch a train to Taplow or Maidenhead, and finally hail a ‘taxi-moter-cab’ [sic] (a taxi). Other well heeled visitors would have arrived in their own chauffeur driven cars – and one image is that of the hotel garage, with guests’ cars neatly parked and the chauffeurs proudly standing by. The garage could house 50 cars, and also provided facilities for ‘accumulators’ to be charged. Car hire was on offer for those who had not brought their own, at vaguely announced ‘reasonable prices’.

The lovely pictures show the attractive building itself (an 18th century coaching inn which had been developed into a hotel by the eponymous Mr Skindle in 1833), which would have been well known – postcards from the same date exist. For potential visitors it also shows the dining room (restaurant), perhaps a little gloomy by modern standards but no doubt the height of sophistication in the Edwardian era. The hotel prided itself on its excellent cuisine – would the French visitors have agreed we wonder?

We don’t see the bedrooms, but apparently most benefitted from river views, and the bathrooms had the latest ‘comforts’. Lighting, they proudly announced, was all electric.

Activities centred on the hotel’s lovely river setting, and the brochure waxes lyrical about the ‘fresh and tender’ beauties of the river and the woodland views and picturesque villages nearby. Cliveden Reach on the river is described as the most beautiful countryside England could offer. One of the pictures shows guests boating on the river, and there is also a price list for electric and steam boat hire. Visitors might have also attended Royal Ascot or Henley Regatta.

This unusual item provides a glimpse of luxury international tourism before the First World War. The hotel itself flourished for many decades, apparently becoming a raffish centre for ‘naughty weekends’ and the place rock stars and other celebrities stayed and partied in the 1960s. Sadly however, it did eventually close, and in recent years the site has been redeveloped.