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ChangingTimes
Friday, September 15, 2017
By Sylvia Endacott
Building's name is reminder of past of town
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Town guides listed dozens and dozens of guest houses and homes I HAVE been spending some time looking through town and street guides from the past. Several weeks ago, when I was around the town looking for pictures and ideas, I came across an interesting building in Wessex Avenue, which is situated near Marine Gardens, West Bognor. A quiet road, containing a variety of buildings including this large imposing façade. Clarehaven Court is clearly displayed across the front of the building. I then remembered there had been a hotel in the vicinity, and yes, it had been the Clarehaven Hotel. According to the Bognor Regis town guide of 1959, it charged between nine and 14 guineas per week throughout the year. THe advertising showed that the dining room had 80 separate tables, 30 bedrooms had every modern amenity and the hotel was open all the year round. It could also boast a cocktail and lounge bar alongside the ballroom, which was 'insulated from the bedrooms'. THe facilities at this hotel included 'home' electric laundry, cots, high chairs, evening meal service to your room and also a 'night watching by arrangement' service in addition to the ‘private “talkie” cine shows'. Furnishings included carpeting throughout and central heating. During the 1980s this hotel was also mentioned in the English Tourist Board brochure for the Taste of England
Food and Drink Guide. Today it is possible to purchase a conversion apartment in this imposing building, which is fitted with all modern conveniences, and you can even share the roof terrace. Nearby in King’s Parade is another property which once advertised in the town guide. In the 1950s this hotel boasted it was the 'brightest hotel' - this was then the Russell Hotel, which was classed as a 'smart modern hotel in a wonderful position in Bognor’s west end, overlooking the Marine Gardens on the seafront'. Its charges also ranged from nine – 14 guineas per week, according to the season. Other advertisements for this hotel included such comments as deeply-sprung mattresses, central heating, separate tables and, finally, homekilled poultry and local market garden produce. Open all year round, it was fully licensed with a cocktail bar. THe hotel was a private family-run business for nearly 60 years. By the mid-1990s this hotel had been transformed into a unique hotel for blind or partially sighted guests under the care of the Action for the Blind charity. It was to be one of only a few such hotels in the country, which catered specifically for the visually impaired visitor with facilities that included talking lifts. In 1999 plans were unveiled to demolish this
Private "talkie" cine shows were offered by one hotel
f The Royal Hotel
f A striking view of the Russell Hotel
f Clairehaven Court
building and to replace it with a £2m hotel that was to be totally purpose-built for the visually impaired and would be the only one of six such hotels nationwide. THe plans included an expansion to 40 bedrooms and the owner hoped to cater for in excess of 3,500 guests per year. But the hotel closed a few years ago and was taken over by the Livability charity to become the new Ashley House residential home. If we travel along to the Bognor Regis seafront, we find another hotel that has changed its use over the years. Namely, the Royal Hotel, which was built in 1888 as the Royal Pier Hotel but because of local objections to the name, was to become THe Royal. In its early days, the advertising claimed this was a first-class modern hotel for families and gentlemen, affording every domestic comfort, situated opposite the pier, with the latest sanitary improvements. I am not sure of the link between its various attributes in this advertisement, but it was obviously deemed to be important at that time. It was a hotel that annually would be full with visitors to the sea who were often visiting the area for Goodwood Races. THe advertising in 1912 included the boast that the hotel was 'patronised by the Marchioness of Salisbury and family'. THroughout its history, thousands of people have enjoyed the splendour of this hotel. One summer in the early 1960s, Tony Hancock stayed there while he was filming The Punch and Judy Man. Eventually, times changed and in the early 1990s it was to become an International Apartment Hotel, where it was possible to purchase an apartment on a 125year lease.
Plans have recently been announced to convert this building into flats. Holiday and town guides have always extolled the virtues of the town, one such in 1912 told of the benefits of living here, which included 'the soil, the climate, and the temperature, the general immunity from fogs the pure water supply and the accessibility to London all tend to help in this direction'. THe early guides contained pages and pages of advertisements for hotels and even in the 1970s we could have stayed at the Brendenham House Hotel, Belmont Street, and Lansdowne Hotel, in West Street, to name just a few. Other accommodation available had such names as Taplow Cottage, Merrivale Guest House, Teneriffe Guest House, Twiga and even Davardun. When I lived with my parents in Plymouth, I can remember them opening our terraced house for bed and breakfast guests annually, and we made friends with many of our visitors. Looking at the Bognor Regis guides over the years it is evident that many many people were involved in this holiday trade. One of the guides I viewed from 1964 lists a total of 68 venues in which the visitor could stay. Many of these were private homes, but beside that some of the names remain as locations. Several hotels were, and still are pubs, but without the accommodation. I quickly looked at a 1916 guide and there were just six small premises being promoted.THe benefits of this area have not changed, but we the public have we now travel to far distant places for our holidays. We wish to enjoy constant good weather and have the ability to enjoy worldwide travel, something that has certainly changed over the years.
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