Gleneagles Hotel, Torquay
The Gleneagles Hotel was a hotel in Torquay, Devon, England. The 41-bed establishment, which opened in the 1960s, was the inspiration for Fawlty Towers, a British situation comedy first broadcast in the mid-1970s. John Cleese, and his then wife Connie Booth, were inspired to write the series after they had stayed at the hotel and witnessed the eccentric behaviour of its co-owner, Donald Sinclair, who ran the hotel with his wife, Beatrice, until they sold it in 1973. Later the hotel was managed by Best Western. In February 2015 the hotel closed. It has since been demolished and replaced by retirement apartments.
Hotel in 2009
Torquay is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies 18 miles (29 km) south of the county town of Exeter and 28 miles (45 km) east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignton on the west of the bay and across from the fishing port of Brixham.
View across Torquay Harbour
Torquay, 1811
Torquay, 1842
Cliffs in Torquay