The Scarborough hotel where Britain’s greatest World War One poet wrote poetry months before being killed on the front line has been listed for its "special historic interest” and “intrinsic architectural merit.”

Wilfred Owen’s best-known poem, "Dulce et Decorum Est," describing the choking horror of a gas attack, was written earlier in 1917 while he was recovering from shell shock at the Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh, Scotland.

In November that year he was sent to recuperate in Scarborough.

As mess secretary of the Clifton Hotel, on Queen’s Parade, Owen chose good rooms with sea views in its imposing five-storey turret, commenting that the smoking fire provided “the right atmosphere” for writing poetry.

Owen was posted back to the Western Front in September 1918, where he was awarded the Military Cross for bravery. He was tragically killed on November 4 1918, aged 25, just a week before the armistice.

A report by Historic England recommending the listing said the ”handsome stucco-fronted hotel of classical appearance” which opened in 1864, “physically remains much as the poet would have remembered it”.

British soldier and war poet Wilfred Owen (1893 - 1918) in uniform with a young boy, circa 1917. (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images)

placeholder image — British soldier and war poet Wilfred Owen (1893 - 1918) in uniform with a young boy, circa 1917. (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images)

It was where he wrote or revised war poems including Strange Meeting, which his friend, the poet Siegfried Sassoon, called Owen’s “passport to immortality”.

Former Scarborough hotelier Tony Bates, who applied to the heritage watchdog for the listing, said he was surprised by his success and pleased that the building would now get better protection.

He said: “It turns out one little person can win against Goliath. If someone had listed the Futurist (Theatre in Scarborough) it wouldn’t have disappeared.

"You couldn’t knock the Clifton down now.”

Scarborough and District Civic Society unveiled a new Wilfred Owen Plaque at The Clifton Hotel in Scarborough in 2025 pic Richard Ponter

Tony said he’d been galvanised into action after unauthorised replacement illuminated signs went up outside the hotel.

The hotel, which is owned by Britannia Hotels and has recently had a major refit, was granted retrospective planning permission for the signs last September.

Tony, then owner of the Ellenby Hotel, in a terrace where most of the hotels, including his, were listed, couldn’t understand why the “fantastic” Clifton Hotel wasn’t similarly protected.

Historic England, the government’s heritage advisor, said there was only a handful of buildings associated with the poet, including his childhood home in Shrewsbury, which is also listed Grade II.

The Clifton Hotel has been listed for its “special historic interest” and “intrinsic architectural merit”.

A cottage in Borage Lane, Ripon, North Yorkshire, where Owen was billeted after staying at the Clifton Hotel "is much altered and would be unrecognisable to Owen today”.

Adrian Perry, president of Scarborough and District Civic Society, which installed a renewed blue plaque to Owen last year, believes the listing will help protect against major alterations, saying people would “think twice about laying a finger on a listed building”.

He said: “It’s fantastic news that another of our wonderful hotels has been awarded this protection.

"It is a wonderful concept to have such a splendid building in that position. It’s important that we preserve our history.”