Norbreck Castle Hotel Blackpool

Despite the name, Norbreck Castle is a large seafront hotel rather than a historic castle. The building began life as a private country house, built in 1869, before it was bought towards the end of the Victorian era by J.H. Shorrocks. Shorrocks initially used the house for lavish weekend parties for friends and colleagues, and when their popularity grew he began taking paying guests commercially.

In 1912 Shorrocks formed a public company and expanded the building over several phases, adding a ballroom, swimming pool and solarium by the early 1930s; it traded as the Norbreck Hydro and drew guests from the British upper class and entertainment world. During the Second World War the building was requisitioned by the British government as offices and accommodation for evacuated civil servants, remaining under government control for eleven years before being handed back in 1951. A refurbished hotel reopened in 1952 with around 400 rooms, and the property was later renamed the Norbreck Castle. Its castellated appearance is reported to trace back to a garden gazebo, itself said to have been modelled on a pair of gazebos at Rossall Hall, rather than to any defensive building.