Gleneagles Hotel, Torquay

Gleneagles Hotel
The Gleneagles Hotel in 2009
Alternative names	Best Western Gleneagles Hotel
General information
Architectural style	Modern
Coordinates	50°28′11″N 3°30′13.5″W / 50.46972°N 3.503750°W / 50.46972; -3.503750
Opened	1963
Closed	February 2015
Technical details
Floor count	3
Other information
Number of rooms	41
Parking	28

The Gleneagles Hotel is a former 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 owner, Donald Sinclair (who sold the hotel in 1973). Later the hotel was managed by Best Western. In February 2015 the hotel closed. It will be replaced with retirement apartments.

The Gleneagles was not originally built as a hotel but was modified to become one. The hotel was first opened in 1963 and was managed by Donald Sinclair. It was initially described as "upmarket" because it advertised private bathrooms in every room. In the early 1970s, cast members of Monty Python's Flying Circus stayed at the Gleneagles for a planned three weeks, while filming in Paignton. Due to Sinclair's rudeness towards them, which included criticising Terry Gilliam's table etiquette and tossing Eric Idle's briefcase out of a window "in case it contained a bomb", the cast left the hotel apart from John Cleese and his wife, Connie Booth. Cleese described Sinclair as "the most marvellously rude man I've ever met" and based his Basil Fawlty character on him when he and Booth created Fawlty Towers five years later. Sinclair sold the Gleneagles in 1973. For the rest of its existence the hotel retained a reminder of Sinclair's legacy: the 41 rooms all had names such as Coral or Mimosa. This was introduced in the Sinclair era of Gleneagles.

In August 2003, developers submitted plans to demolish the hotel and build a block of flats on the site, claiming the building was "unattractive with little architectural merit". In October, Torbay Town Council rejected the application, claiming that it would be against its rules of tourism. In September 2006, Prunella Scales, who played Sybil Fawlty, was "guest of honour" at the reopening of the hotel after a £1,000,000 makeover. The hotel was a part of the Best Western hotel chain.