The Prince Rupert Hotel.

The Prince Rupert Hotel was opened in part of an ancient timber-framed building called Jones\' Mansion in Church Street in the 1950s. The mansion, which dates from the early 17th Century, was built by Thomas Jones a lawyer who was bailiff of Shrewsbury on six occasions and became the first Mayor of the town in 1638. After his death his nephew also called Thomas Jones, occupied the house. He was a lawyer who later became Lord Chief Justice of Common Pleas.

The Hotel takes its name from Prince Rupert of the Rhine, a nephew of King Charles, who stayed there during the Civil War when he visited Shrewsbury to raise troops for the Royalist cause. At one time the mansion had a large forecourt on the corner of St. Mary\'s Street and Church Street, which was built over in the eighteenth century. By the end of the 19th Century after dwindling fortune the mansion had been divided into five houses.

The owners of the Prince Rupert later acquired the Central Hotel in Butcher Row, which stood on the site of the main entrance to the present hotel. Until about 1900 the building was a private dwelling but was converted into a temperance hotel by Mrs Elizabeth Jones. The hotel was taken over by the Smith family in the 1920s and for a while Albert Smith also ran a dairy from there. It remained a temperance hotel right up to the 1950s.

In 1960 the hotels were advertised in this way, \"The Prince Rupert Hotel is a fifteenth century building. The Central Hotel, which is nearby, has been completely remodernised. Both hotels offer the greatest comfort at very reasonable charges. Television Lounge. – There is hot and cold water, central heating, electric fires, spring interior or Dunlopillo mattresses in every room. The hotels are in the very centre of the town in picturesque quiet side streets. The Prince Rupert Restaurant offers meals every day until 11 p.m. With first class cuisine and table license.\" The resident proprietors were Mr. & Mrs Victor Hendel who were largely responsible for amalgamating and upgrading the two hotels. After Victor Hendel retired the hotel was bought by Len Morris-Jones an ex-lecturer at Shrewsbury Technical College who continued to improve the hotel\'s facilities making it one of the finest in the town. In recent years this comfortable and high-class hotel has catered for such personalities as George C. Scott, Edward Woodward and Susannah York who stayed there while filming \"A Christmas Carol\" in 1984. Other notable guests have included Richard Burton, Margaret Thatcher, Edward Heath and Monica Lewinsky who was in town to publicise her autobiography.