According to local newspapers the Leasowe Hotel on Leasowe Road was opened in 1840 by Louis (or Lewis) Bussard, a Swiss-born gent who had been employed by Colonel Edward Cust to manage Leasowe Castle, which had been converted into a hotel in 1828 - see cutting below. It appears that the Leasowe Castle Hotel was not a great success so Colonel Cust decided to close it and turn it into private lodgings, at which point Mr Bussard decided to build a new hotel on the opposite side of Leasowe Road on land that he leased from Thomas Webster. Colonel Cust himself took up residence at Leasowe Castle in 1843, and lived there off and on until his death in 1878.
The lease of the Leasowe Hotel was sold to a new tenant, Benjamin Hornby, in 1859, and he ran it until 1873 when it appears he was declared bankrupt. According to newspaper reports, at this point Mr Webster, the owner of the hotel requested that the licence be revoked as he intended to convert the building into a private residence. This house, named Leasowe Bank or Leasowebank, stood until about 1927, when permission was granted for an extension to be added to the main block of the Leasowe Open-Air Children's Hospital.