Visiting the UK: White Swan Hotel, Alnwick

The sub-title for this article could be ‘Dine in the Olympic’ – except the word ‘Olympic’ could be crossed out and the word ‘Titanic’ substituted. But I’m getting ahead of myself… I’ll get back to that in a minute.

The White Swan Hotel in Alnwick, England, contains many artifacts from the Olympic – the Olympic being the sister ship (she was slightly older) than the Titanic. The two ships weren’t identical in every tiny aspect but were built by the same people and were remarkably alike in most ways.

Unlike the Titanic though, the Olympic plied its way between England and New York until 1935. It carried thousands of passengers and sailed the Atlantic dozens of times. When the ship was finally retired and scrapped, many of her interior fittings were sold and several of these can be seen at the White Swan Hotel.

The then-owner of the hotel had travelled aboard the liner and at auction bought panelling, a fireplace, stained glass windows, doors and other architectural items from the ship. Today you can dine in the hotel’s Olympic Suite – almost an exact reconstruction of the Titanic’s first class lounge. What’s more, the restaurant is open to non-residents too.

However,  and although there have been plenty of conspiracy theories about the sinking of the Titanic, a theory that refuses to die is the one that strongly suggests that it was in fact the Olympic that sank and lies at the bottom of the Atlantic and not, as we have all believed, the Titanic.

Whatever the truth, you can dine at the White Swan in a replica of the first class lounge of ‘the sister ship to the one that sank’ (whichever one it was) and if you’d like to read reviews, YOU CAN DO SO HERE.