Bid to force owner of listed ‘Lennon’ hotel to sell
THE owner of a hotel where John Lennon and Yoko Ono once stayed is embroiled in a bitter row with locals who want to force him to sell it.
The Corbett Arms, in Tywyn, is in a state of disrepair, and residents say it has become a magnet for antisocial behaviour.
They have banded together to try to get Gwynedd Council to issue a compulsory purchase order on the Grade II-listed building. They say it’s of historical importance, and should be preserved.
But the owner says he is doing work on it as and when he can, and laid some of the blame for the state it is in on the locals.
In July 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, along with his son, Julian, and her daughter, Kyoko, stayed at the hotel in advance of heading north to Scotland for a driving holiday.
While staying at The Corbett Arms, Lennon sent a postcard to Ringo Starr. It was included in Starr’s 2004 book Postcards From The Boys.
Glyn Evans said he believed the hotel was a focal point for the community and should be preserved.
He said: “It’s a beautiful building and it’s such a shame.”
He started a petition asking Gwynedd council to use its powers to force the owner to sell.
The campaign has raised more than 1,300 signatures.
But the owner, Ian Pereira, said one of the main reasons the building was in a poor state was because of a “total lack of support from the community”.
A spokesman for Gwynedd Council said the authority was monitoring the situation.