Formerly known as the Newhouse Hotel prior to extensive modernisation, The Newhouse pub has been a landmark for many years, particularly well-known when the old A8 passed through Newhouse
Newhouse is a hamlet and major road interchange located in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, sited immediately east of the Eurocentral industrial park, south of Chapelhall, two miles west of the village of Salsburgh, 1.8 miles (2.9 km) east of Holytown and about 4 miles (6.4 km) north east of Motherwell.
It was formerly a terminus for a railway line from Airdrie, and had several coal mines. Since the decline of the industry in the area the mines have gone, along with most of the inhabitants.
It was also a historic crossing place for north–south and east–west traffic, being on the two former trunk routes of the A8 (between Glasgow and Edinburgh) and the A73 (from Cumbernauld and the north of Scotland to Carlisle and into England). The road junction on which the hamlet is situated remains very busy and is prone to traffic congestion at peak times, since it is where the current A73 (now detrunked and supplanted by the M74), A775 and B7066 meet, just south of the M8 motorway (Junction 6 accessed from the A73 is named Newhouse – it now only provides a westbound offramp and eastbound onramp, with the opposite provided by nearby Junction 6a Chapelhall, accessed via the realigned A8).
It is notorious for its bad weather, as it is one of the highest points on the M8. The height also enables it to command a view over most of the Clyde Valley and Campsie Fells.
Keir Hardie, the founder of the Labour Party and one of the first two LabourMPs elected to the UK Parliament was born in a cottage on the western edge of Newhouse. This cottage still exists on Legbrannock Avenue leading to Newarthill, now surrounded by the Newhouse Industrial Estate.
Hotel and restaurant
The Newhouse Hotel was originally built in the 1930s as a public house and motel in a single building. The original building was built in an art-deco style, and while it still exists it has been extended with a wrap-around canopy and peaked roof added, and the art-deco windows and other features removed. The original motel also had a small petrol filling station, but this was removed in the 1960s.
