The Imperial Hotel & Restaurant
Stroud, Gloucestershire

The Imperial is situated in the Cotswold town of Stroud, which lies surrounded by rural beauty where 5 rivers and streams and their wooded valleys converge. From its position in the centre of the town, surrounded by the hills, the Imperial reflects the magic of Stroud, a magic that has fired the imaginations of creative minds for centuries. Built some 300 years ago, this coaching inn has been restored with a lively touch, enhancing the embrace of heritage and period features with a very smart but informal character to create an ambiance that will make a visit or a stay memorable.

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Stroud is a town and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. Historically, Stroud is known for its involvement in the Industrial Revolution. It was a cloth town; woollen mills were powered by the small rivers which surge through the five valleys, and supplied by Cotswold sheep grazed on the hills above. Particularly noteworthy was the production of military uniforms in the trademark Stroudwater Red colour. Stroud was a fairly major industrial and trading location in the nineteenth century, and so needed transport links. It first had a canal network built: the Stroudwater Navigation and the Thames & Severn Canal, both of which struggled to survive until the early 20th century. The canals are now being restored as a leisure facility by a partnership of British Waterways and the Cotswold Canals Trust (formerly the Stroudwater, Thames and Severn Canal Trust) with a multi-million pound Lottery grant. Stroud railway station (on the Gloucester-Swindon "Golden Valley" line) was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.