youth hostels, the history, people and ideas behind them
In June 1930 The Manchester Guardian reported a hostel had opened in Hope in the Peak District, months before the official Youth Hostels Association opened its first youth hostel in Wales. A group from Sheffield had taken the "stables of Birchfield", and opened a hostel with seven beds, a good water supply, pans and an... Continue Reading →
Len Clark was a young Londoner in 1939. When Europe lost all reason and lurched into war in September he had drifted into the pacifist camp. He debated the rights and wrongs of war, took long walks in the countryside and listened to his gramophone for solace. I love diaries. Diaries and letters offer the... Continue Reading →
People loved collecting hostel stamps whenever they stayed at a hostel. Not only were some stamps collector's items, being works of art in themselves, but they were a record of where people stayed, prompting recollections, competition, and banter. Here's a lovely set from during the second world war, when the stamps were simple, just the... Continue Reading →
Photo courtesy YHA Archive In their early days youth hostel beds were sometimes appalling. People paid a shilling a night, and slept in a bed that could be cold, hard, noisy, and made of anything that came to hand. But that was because youth hostels offered more than a cheap bed. The hostel at Holmfirth... Continue Reading →
If you see the funny side of youth hostels, Best Foot Forward is for you: acute, astute, astoundingly funny and well put together. Maeve Larkin, the writer, knows youth hostels and because she knows her duties, her sausages and her members, she gets it just right. The cast is wonderful and the story charts the... Continue Reading →
SIMPLY HOSTELS 