Fawlty Towers (hotel)

Fawlty Towers is the name of the fictional hotel in which the UK television series "Fawlty Towers" is set, and which gives the TV series its name. The hotel's exterior location is represented by the now demolished Wooburn Grange Country Club in Buckinghamshire.

The hotel was inspired by the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, Devon, the rude manager of which, Donald Sinclair, was the inspiration for the character of Basil Fawlty. In the series, the exterior shots and several mentions during the shows such as those of a "table tennis table" and "ample parking" would imply that the hotel in the series is much bigger than the regular filming set shows, all of which is presumably not shown for budgetary reasons.

Sybil says in "A Touch of Class": “Basil, twenty-two rooms is the limit” (not the sky), but at the end of "The Hotel Inspectors" when the real inspectors walk in the first inspector says “Twenty-six rooms, twelve with private bathrooms …. The owner’s one Basil Fawlty”. In "The Builders", Polly gives the delivery address as “16 Elwood Avenue”. Several episodes refer to the hotel being in Torquay, eg in "Communication Problems" when Mrs. Alice Richards wants a room with sea view.

See list of Fawlty Towers episodes for the various versions of the name outside the hotel in the opening sequence of most episodes. In "The Germans" though, the episode starts with the exterior of the hospital where Sybil is staying.

The hotel has inspired several other hotels and guesthouses to call themselves "Fawlty Towers" after the hotel featured in the television series, including:

*A youth hostel in Darwin, Australia, visited by Michael Palin in an episode of the travel documentary Full Circle
*A motel in Eilat, Israel
*A motel in Bunbury, Western Australia
*A hotel in Sidmouth, England, which was painted like a Union Flag
*A hotel in the tourist town of Yangshuo in southern China
*A hotel in Rome, near the Termini railway station
*A hostel in Livingstone, Zambia
*A youth hostel in Fingal, Tasmania, now an outdoor educational centre for Scotch Oakburn College
*A hotel in Cocoa Beach, Florida, United States, located a block from the beach, which displays British flags and a large sign with a picture of the hotel from the show. The typeface used on this sign is nearly identical to the one used in the opening title of the show.

The hotel also inspired Counter-Strike Source and The Ship maps detailing the building and grounds.

External links

* [http://www.seasidehistory.co.uk/gleneagles_hotel_torquay.html The Gleneagles Hotel fron "Seaside History" website]