York and The Milner Hotel – Review
By Clare Jenkins, January 2025
Every day, over 25,000 people pass through York railway station – once the largest station in the world – and along Platform 3. How many of them notice a large bronze plaque, surrounded by poppy rosettes, on the wall past the departures board? And how many of those who do, take a closer look and see that it’s in memory of station foreman William Milner, who died during the German Baedeker bombing raid of the city in April 1942? He entered a burning building in search of medical supplies to help treat casualties – only to become one himself. When his body was found, he was still clutching the first-aid box. He was subsequently awarded a King’s Commendation for Gallantry.
That commendation is now inside the station’s adjoining hotel, in a glass-fronted case, along with other memorabilia donated by his daughter Brenda. And last October the 150-year-old hotel – originally the Royal Station Hotel, then the Royal York, later The Principal – was renamed The Milner York in William’s honour.
William Milner’s medals, on display at The Milner Hotel
“Ornate”
Living in Sheffield and often visiting York, I’ve passed the Grade II listed Milner hundreds of times over the years. So I’ve been aware of its honey-coloured, stately home splendour, of people dining inside, of the three acres of gardens and fountain outside. But staying there is a whole other matter. After a £27 million refurbishment in 2018, it’s an aristocrat among hotels: elegant, stylish, and extremely comfortable.
Both in the reception area and the adjoining lounges, there are intricately carved pillars, high ceilings, original fireplaces, comfy chairs and sofas, table lamps, framed collections of old-fashioned keys and stiffened shirt collars, and glass-fronted cases containing souvenirs of days gone by: old ice skates, tennis rackets, books by Tennyson and Dickens, copper jelly moulds, a box camera…
Then there’s the ornate cantilevered wrought-iron staircase, rising three floors with yet more handsome pillars and arches. The décor is all soothing dove-grey, the corridors occasionally decorated with old maps and architectural drawings, plus the odd reference to railways. York Station, after all, has been described as ‘one of the great cathedrals of the Railway Age’. From different parts of the hotel, you can still hear distant announcements about the 10.35 to Edinburgh, the 17.44 to Plymouth or the frequent trains to London.
The staircase inside The Milner
“Mesmerising view”
Our bedroom, though, faces the other way. We’ve been given The Hudson Suite, named after the ‘Railway King’, George Hudson, whose statue stands near the hotel. And it’s sumptuous, complete with walk-in wardrobe, black-and-white-tiled bathroom, winged armchairs, a king-size bed, long low table with chairs and stools – and a mesmerising view from the huge bay window towards the Minster, looking splendid as an orange moon rises beside it.
We salute the view with a glass of York gin before heading down to dinner in Peachey’s Bar and Grill (William Peachey co-designed the station as well as the hotel). The conservatory-style restaurant caters well for vegetarians: we share hummus and a burrata salad for starters, then I order the cauliflower ‘steak’ with vine tomatoes, couscous and hummus, while my husband chooses the beetroot burger with a side of broccoli and Chantenay carrots, all cooked to perfection and served in true Yorkshire portions.
Afterwards, we stroll across the tiled floor of the octagonal side entrance, through the revolving-doors and onto Platform 4 – and spend a very happy hour watching passengers racing to catch trains, knowing that we have a nearby bedroom to retreat to.
A room in The Milner
“Magnificent oak panelling”
After buffet breakfast the next morning, York-born sales executive Danny Archer gives us a tour of the hotel, brimming with enthusiasm. “York is amazing,” he says. “It’s got so much to offer. And the hotel is just beautiful. I love working here. You can’t work in a place like this and not be taken over by the atmosphere.”
In addition to 150 bedrooms, there are ten meeting rooms, including the Oak Room with its magnificent oak panelling, ornate ormolu clock and carved plasterwork ceiling. On the lower floor, down a staircase lined by green-and-white Victorian tiles, is the Tiles Room, a former bar lined with more intricate ceramics and brass wall buttons. Nearby is the leisure centre, complete with swimming pool, exercise machines, saunas and beauty treatment rooms.
We’d be happy to linger, but it seems only right to pay the Gothic masterpiece of the Minster a visit. It does, after all, contain medieval stained glass that’s reckoned some of the finest in Europe; carvings of medieval people gurning and grimacing, alongside animals and birds (one pecking out a man’s eyes, others weird and wonderful); gilded stone statues of the first 15 kings of England, from William the Conqueror to Henry V1, all with varying degrees of mad corkscrew curls.
The pool
“Treasure trove”
It’s not far from the Minster to the art gallery, with its current exhibition of William Morris wallpapers (who knew floral sheets of paper could be so interesting?), and its fine collections, including of ceramics and paintings by Gwen John, L S Lowry, Dame Laura Knight, Paul Nash and York’s own William Etty, whose statue stands outside.
After coffee in the gallery café, we board the City Sightseeing Bus, a relaxing way of seeing the city from the outside as much as from the inside. We get off at Clifford’s Tower – the only part of the medieval castle still standing – and head for the Castle Museum, a treasure trove of York social and cultural life from the 16th Century onwards.
One fascinating section is devoted to fashion and body shape, covering such topics as obesity, poor diet and its effects on the body (rickets, bad teeth), changing food and exercise habits. Queen Victoria would now be deemed obese if her mourning dress – complete with ‘lobster-tail bustle’ – is anything to go by: almost as wide (43” waist) as it is tall. Mind you, judging by George IV’s linen shirt, he was no sylph, either. Exhibits range from 18th Century horse-hair wigs and advice on how to hide pox scars to a 1998 Vivienne Westwood dress and a panto dame costume designed like a gigantic disco globe, made for actor Berwick Kaler to mark his 40th year in the Theatre Royal panto in 2018.
Kirkgate in the Castle Museum
image: Stephen McClarence
“Hugely popular”
Then there’s Kirkgate, the hugely atmospheric reconstruction of a cobbled street, complete with sounds (of washing, footsteps, horses’ hooves, a baby crying), smells, grimy windows and torn curtains above, drawers hanging on washing lines below. There’s a taxidermist, a pawnbrokers, gents outfitters, tobacconists, watchmaker and mender, bootmaker, toyshop… everything a Victorian could possibly need.
Another bus ride takes us back towards The Milner and the hugely popular National Railway Museum. Because it’s currently being ‘transformed’, with a view to becoming ‘the world’s railway museum’, the Station Hall is closed. But visitors can still see Sir Nigel Gresley’s 1938 Mallard (which holds the world speed record for a steam loco), a Japanese Bullet Train (the fastest in the world), an early Eurostar, Royal carriages and an Eastern Counties Railway Coach from 1856, one of the oldest surviving railway carriages in the country.
The Garden Room
“Time to return”
Back at the hotel, it’s time for afternoon tea in the delightful Garden Room. A couple of businesspeople are working on their laptops, others having informal meetings or just relaxing, as we are. It’s heritage for the modern world, like Agatha Christie’s refined Bertram’s Hotel: dainty sandwiches, Wensleydale cheese and caramelised onion tartlets, chocolatey treats (York is ‘the home of chocolate’, after all), warm fruit scones with jam and cream… All served on Willow Pattern china, with a proper cake stand, napkins and cutlery.
And then it’s time to return to the station – this time to join the passengers waiting for our train home. “Can’t we just stay here forever?” asks my husband.
The Milner York, Station Road, York YO24 1AA, tel: 01904-653681, themilneryork.com
Room rates start from £107.
The Visit York Pass includes entrance to the Castle and Railway Museums, Art Gallery, York Minster and many other attractions, plus the York City Sightseeing tours: yorkpass.com
yorkcastlemuseum.org.uk
railwaymuseum.org.uk
yorkartgallery.org.uk
yorkminster.org
yorkcitysightseeing.com
