Eric Gill works at the Midland Hotel, Morecambe

Eric Gill works at the Midland Hotel, Morecambe include a sculpture, reliefs and a medallion.

The Art Deco Midland Hotel was built in 1932–33 by the London Midland & Scottish Railway to the design of Oliver Hill and included works by Gill, Marion Dorn, and Eric Ravilious. Eric Gill produced several works for the hotel. These were two seahorses, modelled as Morecambe shrimps, for the outside entrance, a round plaster relief on the ceiling of the circular staircase inside the hotel, a decorative wall map of the north west of England, and a large stone relief of Odysseus being welcomed from the sea by Nausicaa.

The hotel had gradually become run down and neglected and eventually closed its doors to the public in 1993, but early in 2003 it was purchased by Urban Splash, a Manchester-based property company. Rebuilding work began in June 2005 and was completed three years later.

The seahorses were carved in situ from Portland stone, Gill was helped by his assistant Donald Potter. When the hotel was renovated, it was found that the seahorses had been painted red and that they were much affected from exposure to the salty air. They were cleaned and repaired by craftsmen from Burnaby Stone Care Ltd.

Designed and carved by Eric Gill and painted by Denis Tegetmeier who was Gill’s son-in-law and achieved much success as a book illustrator. The medallion is on the ceiling at the top of the circular staircase in the hotel’s central tower. It is coloured in blue, blue green, yellow and shades of red brown and has the inscription "and hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn", words from a sonnet by William Wordsworth. The medallion is 10 feet (3.048 metres) in diameter. Neptune sits wearing a crown and Triton emerges from the sea, clasping his golden horn in his hands. Two mermaids complete the ensemble. During the hotel’s renovation the medallion was repaired and the colours restored by Brian Cardy of Urban Splash. Gill has added the marks of stigmata on Neptune. This is thought to have come about due to the death of his father whom he also tried to depict in the face of Triton.

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