The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
The rise, fall and renaissance of Britain’s grand seaside hotels
Hattie Garlick celebrates gracious coastal institutions that have retained the glamour of the past
Royalty went for recuperation, writers for inspiration, dandies for dancing and dalliances. Those less lucky might hope to people-watch for the price of an afternoon tea.
Once upon a time, there was nowhere so redolent of glamour as a Great British seaside hotel in the summer season and – for a while – the Grand Hotel in Scarborough led the pack. The Grand opened in 1867 and was reputedly Europe’s largest hotel. Bathtubs in its 365 rooms featured an extra tap so that royal guests, including King Edward VIII, could luxuriate in water pumped straight from the sea.
Yet recently, one mayoral candidate branded it “the shame of Scarborough”, promising to buy and restore it to its former glory. A shabby bowling alley now stands where the Cliftonville – once Margate’s finest hotel – was bulldozed in 1962.
All is not lost, however. Because up and down the coast, other grande dames of the sea are currently staging a comeback.
When was their last golden era? “Undoubtedly the mid to end of the 19th century,” says Karen Averby, historian and author of Seaside Hotels, a book charting their remarkable rise, fall and renaissance. Royal physicians were extolling the curative powers of seawater. Queen Victoria’s diary entry for July 30 1847 recounts how she “thought it delightful till I put my head under water, when I thought I should be stifled”.
the Queen said paddle, her subjects donned their woollen bathing suits and dived in. The railways had made seaside towns newly and comfortably accessible. Between 1826 and 1836, just 378 miles of track were built. By 1844, when a station opened at Dover, that stretched to 2,210.
For aspiring resorts, a luxury hotel was a vital asset. The wealthiest visitors might take a suite for the season, the press reporting breathlessly on their chosen residence. Grands, Royals and Imperials sprang up on every prom, says Averby.
A race ensued to employ the most famous architect, use the latest styles, build the most opulent ballrooms and, of course, harness the new technologies of the age: running water, electricity, the telephone.
Then came the 20th century. Whalebone corsets were out, jazz was in. Art deco hotels appeared like white ocean liners along the coast, boasting of the best sprung floors on which to Charlston. It was to prove a final fling. In 1939, war broke out. Seaside hotels were requisitioned. Or bombed.
Pre-war Margate could claim 30 first-class hotels. By August 1943, just two remained. Those with money began searching for less crowded places in which to spend summer. The rise of holiday camps and caravans lured the less well-off too. Then came cheap flights. In 1965, five million foreign holidays were taken. Now, the figure stands at around 45.6 million.
All this – plus their sheer vaunting scale – meant that maintaining many fine seaside hotels was wildly unaffordable. Those that survived had their character stripped to conform with the bland house-style of newly emerging chains. Royal parties were replaced with business conferences.
If that were the end of the story, it would be a glum one. But the seaside hotel is now rising – if not from the ashes – then at least from dishevelment and disrepair.
A rash of recent renovations across the country has reinstated period features. Plus: “Look at the numbers!” says Averby. “Some are booking up now, not only in the [cheaper] low season, but for summer too.”
Location is key. Those hotels within weekending reach of major cities are lucky, as are those boosted by a string of new coastal art galleries and investments. Europe is growing hotter and staycations ease eco-anxiety.
But there is more to the coastal hotel’s irrepressible magic. We do love to be beside the seaside. Or, we do pine for a mythical time when our summers were simpler. When we had buckets and spades instead of screens.
When we learnt dance steps in order to sway through grand spaces with strangers, not film them alone, in bedrooms, for Tiktok.
The best seaside hotels still offer this alchemy of anonymity and community, fun and therapy, refinement and mischief.
They make theatre of your stay. “Take The Grand in Brighton,” says Averby. “The moment you walk through the doors you are having a wonderful experience.”
You can be treated like royalty for the price of a cocktail.
All this taps into our insatiable desire for Downton and Bridgerton. They are also an antidote to the luxury-focused but anodyne aesthetic that leaves so many modern hotels – from London to Las Vegas – feeling somehow cold. Here at the seaside, even the scuffs, stains and faint whiffs of Fawlty Towers seem somehow charming.
“The sense of centuries of delight and excitement is still palpable,” says Madeleine Bunting, author of The Seaside: England’s Love Affair. “These places witnessed some of the nation’s most powerful and intimate experiences – of beauty, fantasy, adventure, indulgence.
“That, combined with the sound and smell of the sea, can’t fail to trigger the wistful pleasures of nostalgia.” Here are 20 of Britain’s best grand seaside hotels.
Burgh Island Hotel Devon
Arrive at high tide by sea tractor, dress for dinner, swim in the natural “mermaid” pool, retreat to the Palm Court for cocktail hour, dance to live jazz piano… This is a hotel – on its own tidal island, no less – that takes 1930s nostalgia seriously. A major refurbishment has revived the authentic art deco glamour that characterises the hotel. Noël Coward and Agatha Christie (both once regulars) would be proud. The latter would be especially tickled, surely, by the hotel’s murder mystery weekends. Doubles from £410 a night, B&B
(01548 810514; burghisland.com)
The Cliftonville Cromer, Norfolk
This imposing seafront hotel was built in 1894 – Cromer’s golden era, when King Edward VII came for the golf, and grockles flocked to its shiny new pier. Less illustrious periods sadly followed, both for the town and the hotel. Now, however, it has been renovated, its glorious bones polished. There are lofty ceilings, shedloads of bright and billowy stained glass, Arts and Crafts carving and panelling. A grand split staircase frames the old-school reception desk, where keys are nostalgically hung on a board. The sea-facing dining room has a huge zebra-striped stone fireplace and every room has sweeping sea views. Doubles from £99 (01263 512543; thecliftonville.com)
No other hotel is quite so baked into British history. When opened to great fanfare in 1864, this Victorian-Italianate grande dame (boasting the first hotel lifts outside of London and 12,560 cubic feet of York and Portland stone) earned the nickname the “Palace by the Sea”. Abba stayed after their 1974 Eurovision win. An episode of Only Fools and Horses was filmed here. And, of course, the IRA targeted Margaret Thatcher here at the Conservative conference in 1984. The hotel sails on, dauntless and dignified, celebrating its 160th birthday this summer with an extensive (and expensive) renovation of its 201 bedrooms. Doubles from £133, B&B (01273 862 121; grandbrighton.co.uk)
Carbis Bay Hotel Cornwall
Built in 1894, on its own Blue Flag sandy beach, Carbis Bay has hosted Virginia Woolf and inspired Rosamunde Pilcher. The latter immortalised it in her novel The Shell Seekers, which describes its “enormously thick carpets, swimming pools, Jacuzzis, private bathrooms, televisions by our beds, huge bowls of fresh fruit, and flowers everywhere”. It has expanded over the decades but its glamour has not faded – in 2021 it hosted the G7 summit. There are six restaurants to choose from – and, in the spa, a heated infinity pool sits on a large sea-facing terrace.
Doubles from £265, B&B (01736 795311; carbisbayhotel.co.uk)
This art deco masterpiece curves gracefully around the promenade like a dazzling white ship. The Midland was designed by architect Oliver Hill, who commissioned sculptor Eric Gill and artist Eric Ravilious to create murals and carvings inside with no expense spared. It opened in 1933 but fell into dereliction over the subsequent decades. Following a recent multi-million-pound restoration, however, it is now spick, span and standing proud. Shell out for a room with a sea view – you absolutely won’t regret it.
Doubles from £113, B&B (01524 424000; inncollectiongroup.com)
The Pier at Harwich Essex
Designed to resemble a Venetian palazzo, The Pier at Harwich was built in 1864 to accommodate passengers departing for the Continent. It stands right on the quayside, opposite the original clapboard Ha’penny Pier (one of Britain’s only working wooden piers, still charming and home to a visitors’ centre, café and seafood kiosk). The hotel’s first-floor bistro is named after this pier, and on its intricate wroughtiron balcony you can eat mussels or fish and chips while gazing at both it and the modern marine traffic, while the sun sets over the Stour. Its 14 bedrooms are individually styled to reflect the watery world outside.
Doubles from £190 (01255 241212; milsomhotels.com)
No 17 the Promenade, Oban, Argyll and Bute
This Victorian Scottish seaside hotel which sits proudly in the middle of Oban’s promenade (the clue is in the name) was entirely and lovingly renovated in 2022. Its 19 bedrooms are sumptuous and just the right level of eccentric: vintage telephones, fringed lamps and rich colour palettes. Downstairs, the salon and bar are witty and warm, while the Italian restaurant whips up an excellent crab and mascarpone tortelloni. From the terrace, when the weather allows, you can watch spectacular sunsets over the Isle of Mull. Doubles from £160, B&B (01631 700211; no17thepromenade.com)
Saunton Sands Hotel Devon
Barring a brief interlude during the Second World War, when it was requisitioned for the Duke of York’s Royal Military School, this glorious art deco hotel has operated continuously since 1933. It was opened in that year by the Christie family, who built the Glyndebourne opera house at around the same time. Coastal views don’t come much more operatic than those from the hotel’s sea-facing rooms, which overlook three miles of beautiful beach. Inside are 74 bedrooms, as well as two suites and 11 apartments. Walls are white and the interior design is reminisWhen
cent of an ocean liner. Expect excellent, old-school service, superb food at the grand two-AA-Rosette restaurant and an impressive spa. There is even a helipad for those wanting to arrive in serious seaside style.
Doubles from £198, B&B (01271 890212; sauntonsands.co.uk)
St Brides Spa Hotel Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire
When it originally opened in the 1930s, this hotel’s brochure boasted of hot and cold water in every room, central heating and electric lighting. By 1938, a journalist for Great Western Railway’s Holiday Haunts magazine noted, with approval, the recent addition of a large glass lounge ballroom. A series of modern makeovers and expansions have now retired the ballroom, but the hotel remains one of Wales’s best seaside escapes. Today it feels bright, breezy and contemporary. And the running water is being put to good use these days in its excellent spa.
Doubles from £210, B&B (01834 812304; stbridesspahotel.com)
Blakeney Hotel Norfolk
This Edwardian hotel has watched over its small harbour and been welcoming travellers since 1922. It has undergone a number of renovations during that time, the most recent and sophisticated in 2022. Notably, a large heated indoor pool has been added, but still it remains the most comfortable and comfortingly traditional base from which to explore North Norfolk’s epic beaches. Nautical-themed curios decorate snug residents’ lounges. Waiters push trolleys bearing cake or kedgeree. Gin and tonics are taken in the hotel’s first-floor bar, with views across the water.
Doubles from £386, B&B (01263 740797; blakeney-hotel.co.uk)
The Royal Hotel Ventnor, Isle of Wight
The Royal opened in 1832 to capitalise on Ventor’s therapeutic microclimate and has remained a prestigious address, commanding views across the bay and English Channel. Its 51 rooms are all comfortable, though some have more of the original character and grandeur than others. Outside, Lloyd Loom chairs wait on the pretty trellis-covered terrace, where Pimms is served overlooking the pool. Squint and you can almost see the ladies in crinolines who must once have played croquet on the lawn. Doubles from £150, B&B (01983 852186; royalhoteliow.co.uk)
The Brudenell Hotel Aldeburgh, Suffolk
The Brudenell opened in 1868 and its winning formula has not changed much over the decades. And why should it? Its suntrap, sea-view terraces and fish restaurant are popular with both tourists and locals. Its position – right on the shingle – cannot be rivalled and it is only a short stroll from the (now rather chi-chi) high street. Bag a sea-view room and you might even spot a seal from your window.
Doubles from £128 (01728 452071; brudenellhotel.co.uk)
The Imperial Hotel Llandudno, Conwy
By 1872, when the Imperial first opened, Llandundo had become known as the “Queen of the Welsh resorts”. The hotel, in the middle of the town’s Promenade, was very much the jewel in its crown. Prince Leopold stayed the following year, while the exiled Queen Rambai Barni of Siam made herself a semi-permanent home here. Thankfully, you no longer have to be royalty to book a room, and while they are not necessarily sumptuous, they are certainly crisp and classic (ask for a fifth-floor, sea-view room with balcony). Though some may find the décor dated, Chantrey’s Restaurant has held two AA Rosettes since 2017, ranking it one of the finest restaurants not only in Llandudno but in North Wales. The terrace (for sandwiches and afternoon tea) has panoramic views over the Great Orme as well as across Llandudno’s sweeping bay. Doubles from £120, B&B (01492 877466; theimperial.co.uk)