THERE is a picture of the Tour de France peloton cycling down Bootham past The Grange Hotel that tells you just how far York has travelled in terms of the tourist economy in the past quarter of a century.

When Jeremy and Vivien Cassel opened The Grange in 1990, tourism was almost a dirty word in the city. "Tourism was not encouraged in those days," says Jeremy. "The council was against it and it was very much about Rowntree's, Terry's, the railway and the carriage works. It has completely changed."

Indeed. Today, tourism is worth an estimated £600 million to York - and last year's Grand Depart followed by the success of this May's inaugural Tour de Yorkshire has only boosted visitor numbers and financial fortunes further.

But York was a completely different place at the start of the 1990s, when Jeremy and Vivien brought their young family north for a new life in York.

They had been looking to buy a hotel in London for five years, but kept being pipped at the post by the over-heating property market. They decided to look further afield - so discovering Bootham Grange, a Regency townhouse within strolling distance of York Minster which had seen better days and had latterly been used as a homeless hostel.

"It was in a terrible state," begins Vivien, recalling their first visit. "There was a dead pigeon lying on the stairs. People were scared to walk past outside in case they were struck by a bottle being thrown from the windows. It was rough."

But the couple, who had three young children, were undeterred. They ploughed on, taking 18 months to convert the building into the smart, English-country-retreat-in-the-city feel that the hotel retains today.

But the dream was over almost before it began. "The day we opened the Kuwait war started and businessmen were not going on planes or trains," Jeremy said. "Our business flatlined and we really struggled; we were not sure that we were going to survive."

With thanks to a supportive bank, the couple managed to ride out the worse of the economic downturn at the start of the 1990s and then watched the business pick up a few years later. By the mid 1990s, the hotel was doing so well they were able to branch out and invest in a second, the Felix, in Cambridge.

York Press:

Jeremy and Vivien Cassel, owners of The Grange Hotel, on Bootham

Jeremy had worked in the hospitality trade since leaving university, working at some of the best hotels in London including The Savoy, Claridge's and The Berkeley. He also had a spell running the ultra-glamorous Regine's nightclub in Kensington (now The Roof Gardens owned by Richard Branson). It was a magnet for the rich and famous. "You name them, they were there," says Jeremy. "Princess Caroline of Monaco opened the place." Other clients included the Queen of Jordan, The Rolling Stones, Jack Nicholson and Joan Collins - and the nightclub was used as a backdrop in her movie The Bitch, in which Jeremy had a cameo role. "I was the restaurant manager and was in one scene - but if you blinked you missed me! I even got paid a fee for it."

The reason the couple wanted their own business was because Jeremy began losing his sight in his mid twenties. "I have Retinitis pigmentosa, which causes tunnel vision, which has steadily developed over the years," he explains. Vivien adds that Jeremy's vision is equivalent to looking down the hole of a straw. Jeremy said: "I was losing my sight and thought nobody was going to employ me so I had better make sure that I was going to have my own business."

When The Grange opened, it had 29 bedrooms, with two restaurants: Smartypants upstairs and the Brasserie, in the cellar. The cellar had been the air raid shelter for the area during the war, and the building took a direct hit during one of the German bombing raids on the city. During renovations, they discovered lots of rubble from the raid in the basement. Another discovery was the skeleton of a Roman soldier out front, who had been buried with his arms crossed, just inches from the main road.

York Press:

SIMPLY SPLENDID: The main staircase at the The Grange Hotel, on Bootham, York's finest Regency hotel

The hotel has undergone various refurbishments in the past 25 years and is about to undergo another. From late August, The Ivy Restaurant will close, as will a function suite on the ground floor, to make way for five new bedrooms. The main eaterie will be in the cellar brasserie, which will be extended, where the focus will be on French fare, with head chef Will Nicol at the helm.

The alterations are in keeping with the changing face of the city, say the Cassels. A bustling restaurant scene in York and the rise of leisure tourism has seen more demand for hotel rooms than hotel dinners. Jeremy said: "We have always tried to stay at the front of things, we don't want to be lagging."

Sounds like a winning recipe for success.