The Empire Hotel

Where is it? 

73 Church Walks, Llandudno LL30 2HE 

What’s there? 

A luxury hotel with 54 boutique rooms, a restaurant and bar, and spa with gym and pool facilities 

Facts - 

▪ This building was erected in 1856 as Llandudno’s first modern department store. It had a chemist, a grocer and an Italian warehouse. It was run by a 23-year-old Denbigh man named Thomas Williams, who might be described as Llandudno’s first entrepreneur. 

▪ By 1899 the building had become the Regent Hotel. In 1900 proprietor George Goodwin was charged with allowing guests to play billiards after closing hours. Magistrates fined him a token sixpence. 

▪ The building was renovated in 1904 and reopened as the Empire Hotel 

▪ For the past 75 years, the building has been owned and ran by the Maddocks family, who moved to the area from Birmingham. When Edith and Harold Maddocks arrived in 1946 there were just 20 rooms and 2 bathrooms. 

▪ The second generation at the helm of Len and Elizabeth Maddocks (1963) really expanded the hotel adding bathrooms to all rooms, an indoor pool in 1980 (the first in North Wales) extending the restaurant and bar and adding wherever possible