History of The Milner York (formerly The Principal York)

The hotel’s roots lie firmly embedded in the great “Railway Age” when iron roads were criss-crossing the country.

By July 1840, the York and North Midlands Railway linked up with a chain of lines running to London and for the first time travelling from York to London by rail in a day became possible, albeit taking an uncomfortable and tedious 14 hours.

In 1853 the Station Hotel opened in its first location, inside York's city walls. It boasted 15 reception rooms and 55 bedrooms. On 14th September 1854, Queen Victoria honoured it with her presence when she called there for lunch on her way to Scotland. The hotel’s owners then felt quite justified in adding the prefix “Royal” to its name. They continued the practice when the new hotel was built. The original station and hotel can still be seen, near Tanner Row, where they are used as offices by the Eastern Region headquarters of British Rail.

By 1865 it was recognised that York Station had outgrown its purpose. The North Eastern Railway Company – formed in 1853 as an amalgamation of three railways – decided to build a new station outside the city walls. 

The coming of the railways heralded the birth of the hotel age and the railway companies - recognising the increase in rail travel - began to vie with each other to produce bigger and better hotels. North Eastern Railway Architect, William Peachey was tasked with designing the new station building, with the hotel as an integral part of the design. The new hotel was to be the North Eastern Railway Company’s flagship hotel, built to accommodate the aristocracy of the North and the wealthy Yorkshire industrialists.

The station finally opened on 25th June 1877 and the following year in May 1878 The Royal Station Hotel (now The Milner York) opened. Built to feature elegant, high-ceilinged banqueting rooms for social functions and 100 large, well-appointed bedrooms for anyone who could afford 14 shillings a night. At this time the hotel was managed directly by the railway company. 

There were three entrances: the East End (or town entrance), the West (or garden entrance) and the handsomely tiled octagonal entrance. As most of the hotel’s patrons arrived by rail, the latter was the most accustomed entrance into the hotel, providing access both to the station and its forecourt. 

The West entrance disappeared in 1896 when a new 27-bedroom wing was added. Taller than the rest of the building, the wing is known as “The Klondyke” and it was built in the year of the Gold Rush in America. Nowadays, most visitors use our garden entrance dating back to 1939, which leads to the drive and car park.

The splendid ironwork construction of the main staircase is still to this day a much-admired feature of the hotel. Supported on one side only, it forms three upper galleries and provides a fascinating perspective of the stairwell viewed from above or below. 

The coffee room had a magnificent view of York Minster and the hotel grounds, in those days, extended right the way down to the River Ouse. This room has since had an expansion and is today known as the Garden Room. 

The only part of the hotel protected by a conservation order is the conference room in the “Klondyke” wing. Its magnificent carved oak panelling created a club-like atmosphere for guests when it was a reading room. The wooden reading racks still exist (this is now known as The Oak Room). 

For the best part of 40 years, the hotel remained largely unchanged. That was until 1939 when a new wing with its own entrance was built, at this time Art Deco lighting and furnishings replaced many Victorian features in the original hotel, and chimney places were adapted for gas fires. This is today the site of the Events Centre which was added in 1999. 

Tradition says that the local horse trainers used to make their jockeys run up and down the hotel’s 100-yard-long corridor which extends from East to West to lose weight, while the trainers retired to the comfortable chairs in the bar with glasses of brandy. 

In 1948 the hotel was nationalised along with the railways and remained so until privatisation in 1982, since when its owners have included Distinguished Hotels, Simplon Orient Express and The Principal Hotel Company, whose multi-million-pound investment in 2015 with luxurious designs by award-winning architects Goddard Littlefairhas restored the Grade II listed building to magnificent glory and renamed the hotel The Principal York on 1st November 2016. 

October 2024 marked a new chapter for our historic hotel, as we proudly rebranded to honour York’s rich railway legacy. Named after William Milner, a courageous York Station foreman during World War II, our hotel pays homage to his bravery and dedication. Milner’s heroic actions in a wartime air raid, where he selflessly risked his life to secure medical supplies, earned him posthumously the prestigious King’s Commendation for Gallantry.

In further tribute to York's railway legacy, we’ve reimagined our Food & Beverage outlets. The restaurant, Peachey’s Bar & Grill is named after William Peachey, the North Eastern Railway architect who designed the hotel. The Swollen Gambler, our lively bar, draws its name from George Hudson, the railway pioneer whose opulent lifestyle earned him fame, while his vision made York a major railway hub in the 1800s.