The Grand Burstin Hotel
I’m posting two photos of this hotel, even though I have posted photos of it before - it’s difficult to avoid capturing in any photos of the harbour in Folkestone since at fourteen storeys and 200 feet high it dominates the western end. Many local people dislike it, saying it is ‘not in keeping’ with the town. In actual fact I think it will complement the proposed new development of the seafront, but whether THAT is in ‘in keeping’ with the town is another matter! Anyway, here is its story….
This hotel is built on the site of the former Royal Pavilion Hotel that was built in 1843 and extensively refurbished in 1899. It was originally just the Pavilion Hotel and gained the ‘royal’ addition after either Queen Victoria or Prince Albert stayed there after inspecting troops at Shorncliffe barracks. During the 19th century, The Royal Pavilion was one of Folkestone’s top hotels with an impressive guest list of the rich and famous. In addition to various members of the royal family, other well known visitors to the Hotel were Charles Dickens, members of the Rothschild family and Sir Joseph Paxton.
But Folkestone’s tourist industry suffered badly from being so near to the Continent in the two World Wars. In WW1 it was the main embarkation port for troops crossing the Channel, and in WW2 it became a ‘closed town’. The War Office requisitioned the hotel after the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940 and didn’t relinquish it until 1945. It never reopened as a hotel again.
A Polish seaman stayed in the hotel at the start of WW2 while his asylum papers were processed. He later joined the Royal navy serving with distinction, and after the war’s end he returned and in 1960 bought the hotel from the Ministry of Defence, turning it into a residential home. The man’s name was Motyl Burstin. He promised to revamp the old hotel, the town’s oldest large hotel and the first to be lit by electricity, and speedily convert it to flatlets. In 1973 he demolished part of the old hotel and built the initial section of the current building – the half in the left in my photo. He originally called it the Motel Burstin, and had plans to turn the complex into one of the biggest conference centres in Europe. But the idea never took off and the new building accelerated the decline of the remaining original buildings to the extent that by 1980 it was commonly regarded as ‘a notorious seaside slum’, and there were widespread calls for the old buildings to be demolished and its residents moved elsewhere. Even Burstin said he wouldn’t house his mother there.
And so the old hotel, apart from one section that is incorporated into the ‘new’ hotel, was demolished and the extension you see, being that rectangular slab to the right of the ‘tower ‘ was built in 1982. The idea is that the building looks like one of the big cruise ships that regularly call at nearby Dover Harbour.
The hotel is now owned by the Britannia Group who added the word ‘Grand’ to the hotel’s name, and which in October 2019, was ranked Britain’s worst hotel chain for the seventh year running, Need I say more….
The Grand Burstin Hotel
I’m posting two photos of this hotel, even though I have posted photos of it before - it’s difficult to avoid capturing in any photos of the harbour in Folkestone since at fourteen storeys and 200 feet high it dominates the western end. Many local people dislike it, saying it is ‘not in keeping’ with the town. In actual fact I think it will complement the proposed new development of the seafront, but whether THAT is in ‘in keeping’ with the town is another matter! Anyway, here is its story….
This hotel is built on the site of the former Royal Pavilion Hotel that was built in 1843 and extensively refurbished in 1899. It was originally just the Pavilion Hotel and gained the ‘royal’ addition after either Queen Victoria or Prince Albert stayed there after inspecting troops at Shorncliffe barracks. During the 19th century, The Royal Pavilion was one of Folkestone’s top hotels with an impressive guest list of the rich and famous. In addition to various members of the royal family, other well known visitors to the Hotel were Charles Dickens, members of the Rothschild family and Sir Joseph Paxton.
But Folkestone’s tourist industry suffered badly from being so near to the Continent in the two World Wars. In WW1 it was the main embarkation port for troops crossing the Channel, and in WW2 it became a ‘closed town’. The War Office requisitioned the hotel after the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940 and didn’t relinquish it until 1945. It never reopened as a hotel again.
A Polish seaman stayed in the hotel at the start of WW2 while his asylum papers were processed. He later joined the Royal navy serving with distinction, and after the war’s end he returned and in 1960 bought the hotel from the Ministry of Defence, turning it into a residential home. The man’s name was Motyl Burstin. He promised to revamp the old hotel, the town’s oldest large hotel and the first to be lit by electricity, and speedily convert it to flatlets. In 1973 he demolished part of the old hotel and built the initial section of the current building – the half in the left in my photo. He originally called it the Motel Burstin, and had plans to turn the complex into one of the biggest conference centres in Europe. But the idea never took off and the new building accelerated the decline of the remaining original buildings to the extent that by 1980 it was commonly regarded as ‘a notorious seaside slum’, and there were widespread calls for the old buildings to be demolished and its residents moved elsewhere. Even Burstin said he wouldn’t house his mother there.
And so the old hotel, apart from one section that is incorporated into the ‘new’ hotel, was demolished and the extension you see, being that rectangular slab to the right of the ‘tower ‘ was built in 1982. The idea is that the building looks like one of the big cruise ships that regularly call at nearby Dover Harbour.
The hotel is now owned by the Britannia Group who added the word ‘Grand’ to the hotel’s name, and which in October 2019, was ranked Britain’s worst hotel chain for the seventh year running, Need I say more….