This former hotel was built by the London and North Western Railway to replace an earlier hotel called the Prince of Wales Hotel. The rail company had been operating a steam packet service across the Irish Sea and moved its terminus from Dún Laoghaire in 1861 to North Wall Quay. The company bought the previous hotel and opened this hotel in 1890. The hotel provided much employment in the locality until the LNWR ships abandoned the North Wall in 1908. Occupied by British officers during the War of Independence it became known as the British Rail Hotel and ceased to operate as a hotel during the 1920s. Recently used as offices of Irish Rail.