The Grand Hotel in Scarborough – and its design theme of time…
I’ve just finished a book by the Calderdale based author Benjamin Myers called Rare Singles, about a 70 year old US Soul artist coming to a Northern Soul Weekender in Scarborough and his unlikely friendship with a local music obsessive lady in a loveless marriage.
In the book the lead character is put up for the weekend in a hotel called The Majestic, a grand hotel which has seen better days. It is so obviously based on The Grand Hotel on the cliff top at Scarborough that I thought it would make an interesting subject for a blog.
The Grand Hotel is a Grade II listed building perched above the town’s South Bay. It is visible from most of the bay and looks almost like a palace from a distance. The hotel also holds down the fact that at its grand opening in 1867, it held the record that it was the largest brick built structure in Europe.
The bricks were actually made in Hunmanby near the coast in the East Riding. There were two types used, a yellow (often described as tawny) brick with more traditional red bricks used to indicate different floors and to highlight the windows.
The architect responsible for the design was called Cuthbert Broderick, who many people living in Leeds may have already heard of. Broderick had already designed a number of impressive buildings in Leeds including Leeds Town Hall as well as Leeds Corn Exchange.
The Grand Hotel has a lot of interesting themes running through its design. Firstly when looked at from above it is more of a flat iron type shape, actually built/designed in a V shape. This was in recognition of the monarch at the time which was Queen Victoria. This is quite apt as the height of the hotels life was definitely during the Victorian age, with wealthy visitors staying there as they made trips to the popular Victorian Spa Town.
The theme of time…
But as well as the V shape, the main theme that Cuthbert Broderick had in mind when designing the building was time.
The hotel has 4 grand towers on top, each of these was designed to symbolise the 4 seasons – Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
Looking up from the sea front, the hotel then has 12 floors to symbolise the months of the year.
Looking up to the roof, there are 52 chimneys on the building, this time to symbolise the weeks of the year.
Then when the hotel opened it had 365 rooms to symbolise the days of the year. Later reservations meant that the number of rooms was reduced down to 280.
A Spa Hotel
The hotel initially attracted wealthy tourists, visiting for Spa treatments. With the hotel situated on the coast guests originally had an extra pair of taps so that they could choose whether they bathed in fresh water or sea water. With the modern day sewerage leaks and poor quality of bathing water nowadays, I don’t think many people would be choosing the sea water option today!
Construction started in 1863 and it took 4 years to complete. The hotel opened on 24th July 1867 with the first manager being a Frenchman M. Augustus Fricour who had managed the Hotel Mirabeau in Paris. The owners obviously wanting to position the hotel internationally.
World War 2 and James Herriot
During the first world war, the hotel was damaged in 1914 by a raid on the town by the German navy. Whilst the hotel was hit over 30 times, it was quickly repaired and was back in popular use shortly after.
Other War related links include the fact that The Grand Hotel in Scarborough was requisitioned during the 2ndWorld War to serve as a training base for Royal Airforce recruits. A famous trainee who was briefly stationed at the hotel was one Alf Wight, better known by is pseudonym, the author and vet James Herriot.
The 4 towers were actually fitted with anti-aircraft guns too during this time!
Later on in the 1980’s after the Iranian Embassy Siege in London, the hotel was used for anti-terrorism training by the SAS in preparation for future terrorist attacks.
Not quite as Grand a Hotel
Sadly more recently the reputation of the hotel has not been quite that of its Victorian hey- day. It started with Butlins buying the hotel in the 1970’s to use it as a budget accommodation option. The hotel was more recently bought by the Britannia Group and has had various closures for health related outbreaks.
The hotel still is open for business for people to book rooms and overnight stays in the town. But the hotel’s use as accommodation for asylum seekers and housing Afghan refugees has caused quite a few negative reviews from customers and concerns from locals.
Sadly it is not just The Grand Hotel. Many of these huge Victorian hotels are so large and require so much money for repairs, heating and keeping them up to standard, that many fall into disrepair. Let’s hope that the hotel one day returns to its former glory as from the outside it is still an amazing building with a wonderful heritage.
Comments