Grand Hotel

This hotel was built in the 1840s and originally called the Verulam Hotel with an addition of extra storeys at some point in the building's life. The hotel was however, very poorly constructed and the addition of the extra floors led to issues maintaining the buildings structure and continued usage as a hotel.

Closure

The Hotel, at Verulam Place opposite Hastings Pier, closed because of financial problems (possibly relating to the aforementioned issues) in October 1906. This was followed in November by an extensive sale of all the furniture. This was bought in one lot for £2,000 by Mr John J Butler, of Butlers Emporium in George Street, paying the £2,000 in cash to the auctioneer.

He claimed he went to the auction with no hard plans to buy it, and happened to have the money in his pocket. By the end of the following day he had disposed of his suspicious bargain to a Mr Cavie, of Milward Crescent, an old acquaintance. Butler said he bumped into Cavie in the street soon after the auction, told him about it and sold it almost on the spot.

Demolition

As a result of the poor construction/dereliction and damage during the Second World War, by the 1950s it was almost completely derelict with only the ground floor remaining in use. Parts of the hotel were demolished in the 1930s, (No9 - a narrow section near the White Rock Pavilion) and the 1950s (Nos 2- 4 to for the construction of Waverley Court) Most of the remaining buildings were pulled down around 1965; a collapse during demolition taking the life of one of the workers as a wall was being removed from the top floor^[1], just leaving No 9 Verulam Place standing on its own. This was used as the council's Visitor information centre until it too was demolished in 1987. A block of sheltered accommodation flats were built on the site a few years later.

Images

Images
Verulam Place c1840
Verulam-Place-1868.
View-inland-from-Hastings-Pier-1881
Verulam-Place-and-the-Grand-Hotel-opposite-the-Pier.-c1889.
Grand-Hotel-as-seen-from-Hastings-Pier.-c-1897
White Rock c1903
Hastings-Pier-with-the-Infirmary-to-the-left.-c1904.
View-of-Grand-Hotel-at-Verulam-Place-White-Rock.-c1905.
Eversfield-Place-and-Grand-Hotel.-1908.
By-the-pier-1908
The-long-forgotten-Grand-Hotel-opposite-the-pier.-1910.-Waverly-Court-now-occupies-the-site.
A-photo-of-a-tram-opposite-the-Grand-Hotel-on-the-wire-and-not-the-studs.-1912.
The-Hospital-at-White-Rock-which-stood-opposite-the-pier.-1912.
White Rock Bandstand c1912
Hastings-Pier-promenade.-1919.
Bowling-greens-1929
The-pier-and-White-Rock-Pavilion-1931.
Aerial View Hastings Pier 1933
Hastings-Pier-from-White-Rock-Gardens-1930s
End-of-pier-1933
The-Grand-Hotel.-1935.
Hastings-Pier-1946-Showing-the-parts-front-and-centre-that-were-removed-during-WW2.
The-Grand-Hotel-as-it-looked-in-1947.
The-Grand-Hotel-in-1952
White Rock Pavilion 1955
Angling-Competition-Hastings-Pier-1956.
Demolition-of-the-Grand-Hotel-in-1965
Grand Hotel Collapse 1965