Image Ref : JFB 0081.tif

The Torbay Hotel, 1912

The Torbay Hotel, on Torquay seafront, opened to the public on 2 November 1867. This shows the hotel as it was in 1912, with substantial examples of 'Torbay palms' in the foreground. On 6 August 1907, the hotel had hosted the farewell dinner of Sir Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922) the evening before his British Antarctic Expedition departed on the ship Nimrod. It left from the Haldon Pier in front of the hotel. The event is commemorated with a blue plaque.