The Station Guest House was built in the 19th century, first known as “Richmond Villa” it was built by Lord Churston, the land then being part of his estate. The railway was constructed in the 1860’s and Lord Churston being on the railway board sold off parts of his estate enabling the line to continue into Kingswear and the Brixham branch line was created.
Today our front patio and entrance area aford lovely picturesque views of steam trains running between Paignton and Kingswear and Dartmouth. In the 1890’s the house passed into the hands of John Williams-Bennett, a local schoolmaster. As his 13 children grew up and subsequently moved on, paying guests were taken in and “Richmond Villa” became the White House Hotel.
During the Second World War U.S. troops were stationed in Torbay exercising for the D-Day landings and a number of troop ships departed from Brixham slipway for the invasion. It is reputed that General Eisenhower was a guest whilst inspecting the troops or maybe his visit was a morale boosting exercise after the loss of almost 1000 troops during exercise Tiger at Slapton Sands. In the mid-1960’s the “White House” became the “White Horse”, the owners at the time having horse racing connections. In December 2021 it was renamed to “The Station Guest House”
