youth hostels, the history, people and ideas behind them
If you thought hostels weren’t for you, this might inspire and change your mind and I can think of no better reason for reading it. Hostels are all over the world. They’ve been around for more than 100 years and follow a trend that’s even older than that. But for some they’re still a mystery.... Continue Reading →
At the end of my research, when I came to write Open to All – how youth hostels changed the world, the story of Richard Schirrmann would not fit. I loved the story of the man who invented youth hostels but early readers commented that the story was too much in what was a history... Continue Reading →
History, books, sustainability and profiles of the hostels themselves.
In England and Wales, 1150 youth hostels have been open at one time or another since 1930. That's a lot, and YHA’s honorary archivist, John Martin, has been researching and writing illustrated profiles of them for several years now. To date he's written 114 profiles, covering more than 200 hostels. Each profile is between one and... Continue Reading →
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 →
