The Grand Brighton | |
---|---|
Hotel chain | Leonardo Hotels [1] |
General information | |
Location | Brighton, United Kingdom |
Address | 97-99 Kings Road, Brighton BN1 2FW |
Coordinates | 50°49′17″N0°08′50″W / 50.82139°N 0.14722°W |
Opening | 21 July 1864 |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | John Whichcord Jr. |
Other information | |
Number of rooms | 201 |
Website | |
http://www.grandbrighton.co.uk/ |
The Grand Brighton Hotel is a Victorian sea-front hotel in Brighton on the south coast of England. Designed by John Whichcord Jr. and built in 1864, it was intended for members of the upper classes visiting the town and remains one of Brighton's most expensive hotels.
During the 1984 Conservative Party conference the hotel was bombed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in an attempt to assassinate the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.
The Grand Hotel was designed by the architect John Whichcord Jr. and built in 1864 on the site occupied previously by the West Battery at Artillery Place, [2] one of Brighton's 18th-century coastal fortifications. [3] [4] It was built for members of the upper classes visiting Brighton and Hove and remains one of the most expensive hotels in the city. Among its advanced engineering features at the time was the ‘Ascending Omnibus’, a hydraulically powered lift powered by cisterns in the roof. [2] This was the first lift built in the United Kingdom outside London, at a time when only two others had been installed. [5] The building itself is an example of Italian influence in Victorian architecture. [6]
The hotel was bombed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the early morning of 12 October 1984 in an attempt to assassinate the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, during the Conservative Party conference. The bomb exploded at 2:51am. It had been hidden three weeks earlier behind the bath panel of room 629. [7] [8]
Thatcher survived the bombing but five other people were killed in the attack, including Roberta Wakeham, wife of the government's Chief Whip, John Wakeham, and the Conservative MP Sir Anthony Berry. Norman Tebbit, a member of the Cabinet, was injured, along with his wife, Margaret, who was left paralysed. [7] [8] Thatcher insisted that the conference open on time the next day and made her speech as planned in defiance of the bombers, [8] a gesture that won widespread approval across the political spectrum.[ citation needed ]
The hotel was reopened on 28 August 1986. The ceremony was attended by Thatcher, who spoke at a reception to celebrate the reopening. Tebbit accompanied her. Concorde flew low from the south to salute the opening. [9]
The hotel belonged to the De Vere Group, beginning in the 1990s. [10] De Vere Hotels undertook a multimillion-pound refurbishment of The Grand, which was completed in 2013. Another refurbishment project concluded in 2019. [1]
On 15 October 2011 the Grand Hotel was inducted into the Brighton Walk of Fame and is only the third structure in Brighton to be recognised by the Walk of Fame committee. The hotel has hosted many famous guests, including ABBA, who partied in the appropriately named Napoleon Suite on the first floor following their 1974 Eurovision Song Contest win with their performance of 'Waterloo'. [11] Other famous faces who have performed in The Grand Brighton's Empress Suite include singer Jessie J, Rizzle Kicks, The Saturdays, Elbow and Sugababes.
De Vere Hotels sold the Grand in 2014 [12] to Wittington Investments for £50 million. This company in turn sold the hotel to Leonardo Hotels, part of the Fattal Group, in February 2023. [1]
There are 201 rooms in the hotel, including 8 singles, 115 standard twin and standard double rooms, 31 sea-view twin and sea-view double rooms, 42 sea-view deluxe rooms and 4 sea-view suites, including the ‘Presidential Suite’. It offers bespoke conferencing facilities for up to 1,000 guests. The Empress Suite is the country's largest sea-facing conference suite and can hold 1,000 guests. It is commonly used as a venue for weddings, along with the hotel's Regent room (a former Victorian library) and first-floor suites.
The Grand Brighton hotel is also home to Cyan restaurant and bar, [13] an all-day dining spot which still features original 155-year-old marble pillars around its central bar area.
The current manager is Andrew Mosley, who joined the hotel in May 2010. [14]
The Grand Brighton has been praised for its industry-leading approach to management of employee engagement in the hospitality industry, winning 'Best Employer in UK Hospitality' at the 2019 Cateys award ceremony hosted by The Caterer. [15]
Amongst many appearances in television and film the Grand Hotel was visited by the Trotter family in 1992 in an episode of the BBC Television comedy Only Fools and Horses entitled Mother Nature's Son. The hotel has also been featured in ITV's Coronation Street .
The hotel was the subject of the documentary The Grand written and presented by Robert Longden for Southern Television.
In the film Quadrophenia it was the hotel where Sting's character, Ace Face, was a bellboy.
On 12 October 1984 the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) attempted to assassinate members of the British government, including the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England. Five people were killed, including the Conservative MP Sir Anthony Berry; more than thirty people were injured. Thatcher was uninjured. The bombing was a key moment in the Troubles, the conflict in Northern Ireland between unionists and republicans over the constitutional position of Northern Ireland, which took place between the late 1960s and 1998.
The Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital is a children's hospital located within the grounds of the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton on the south coast of England. It provides outpatient services, inpatient facilities, intensive care and a 24-hour emergency care service for children referred by GPs and other specialists. It is managed by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.
Embassy Court is an 11-storey block of flats on the seafront in Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It has been listed at Grade II* by English Heritage. Wells Coates' "extremely controversial" piece of Modernist architecture has "divided opinion across the city" since its completion in 1935, and continues to generate strong feelings among residents, architectural historians and conservationists.
There are 72 Grade II* listed buildings in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. The city, on the English Channel coast approximately 52 miles (84 km) south of London, was formed as a unitary authority in 1997 by the merger of the neighbouring towns of Brighton and Hove. Queen Elizabeth II granted city status in 2000.
Sussex Heights is a residential tower block in the centre of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built between 1966 and 1968 on the site of a historic church, it rises to 102 m (335 ft) and has 116 flats. As of August 2022, the tower is the 125th tallest building in the UK, and until 2005 it was the tallest residential tower in the UK outside of London. Until 2015, it was the tallest structure in Brighton and Hove, however it has now been exceeded by the Brighton i360, which stands at 162 metres; the tower is still Brighton and Hove's tallest builidng, as observation towers do not meet the definition of a building.
As of February 2001, there were 1,124 listed buildings with Grade II status in the English city of Brighton and Hove. The total at 2009 was similar. The city, on the English Channel coast approximately 52 miles (84 km) south of London, was formed as a unitary authority in 1997 by the merger of the neighbouring towns of Brighton and Hove. Queen Elizabeth II granted city status in 2000.
As of February 2001, there were 1,124 listed buildings with Grade II status in the English city of Brighton and Hove. The total at 2009 was similar. The city, on the English Channel coast approximately 52 miles (84 km) south of London, was formed as a unitary authority in 1997 by the merger of the neighbouring towns of Brighton and Hove. Queen Elizabeth II granted city status in 2000.
Brighton and Hove, a city on the English Channel coast in southeast England, has a large and diverse stock of buildings "unrivalled architecturally" among the country's seaside resorts. The urban area, designated a city in 2000, is made up of the formerly separate towns of Brighton and Hove, nearby villages such as Portslade, Patcham and Rottingdean, and 20th-century estates such as Moulsecoomb and Mile Oak. The conurbation was first united in 1997 as a unitary authority and has a population of about 253,000. About half of the 20,430-acre (8,270 ha) geographical area is classed as built up.
As of February 2001, there were 1,124 listed buildings with Grade II status in the English city of Brighton and Hove. The total at 2009 was similar. The city, on the English Channel coast approximately 52 miles (84 km) south of London, was formed as a unitary authority in 1997 by the merger of the neighbouring towns of Brighton and Hove. Queen Elizabeth II granted city status in 2000.
The Van Alen Building is a modern apartment and penthouse block on the seafront in Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It was named after William Van Alen, the architect of New York City's Chrysler Building and is designed as a 21st-century interpretation of the Art Deco and Streamline Moderne styles. It was completed in 2001.
Thomas Lainson, FRIBA was a British architect. He is best known for his work in the East Sussex coastal towns of Brighton and Hove, where several of his eclectic range of residential, commercial and religious buildings have been awarded listed status by English Heritage. Working alone or in partnership with two sons as Lainson & Sons, he designed buildings in a wide range of styles, from Neo-Byzantine to High Victorian Gothic; his work is described as having a "solid style, typical of the time".
John Leopold DenmanFRIBA was an architect from the English seaside resort of Brighton, now part of the city of Brighton and Hove. He had a prolific career in the area during the 20th century, both on his own and as part of the Denman & Son firm in partnership with his son John Bluet Denman. Described as "the master of ... mid-century Neo-Georgian", Denman was responsible for a range of commercial, civic and religious buildings in Brighton, and pubs and hotels there and elsewhere on the south coast of England on behalf of Brighton's Kemp Town Brewery. He used other architectural styles as well, and was responsible for at least one mansion, several smaller houses, various buildings in cemeteries and crematoria, and alterations to many churches. His work on church restorations has been praised, and he has been called "the leading church architect of his time in Sussex"; he also wrote a book on the ecclesiastical architecture of the county.
The Brighton Wheel, also known during its planning and construction phase as the Brighton O and the Wheel of Excellence, was a transportable Ferris wheel installation which operated from October 2011 until May 2016 on the seafront in Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Situated below the East Cliff near Brighton Pier and built with private funding, its promoters anticipated that several hundred thousand visitors per year would experience the 12-minute ride. The wheel's location in a conservation area with many residential buildings proved controversial.
Clayton & Black were a firm of architects and surveyors from Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. In a career spanning the Victorian, Edwardian and interwar eras, they were responsible for designing and constructing an eclectic range of buildings in the growing town of Brighton and its neighbour Hove. Their work encompassed new residential, commercial, industrial and civic buildings, shopping arcades, churches, schools, cinemas and pubs, and alterations to hotels and other buildings. Later reconstituted as Clayton, Black & Daviel, the company designed some churches in the postwar period.
Gothic House is a Gothic-style building in the centre of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Although it has been in commercial use for more than a century, it retains some of its original appearance as "one of the most fascinating houses" built by the prolific partnership of Amon Henry Wilds and Charles Busby. It is the only Gothic Revival building they are known to have designed: they typically adopted the Regency style, sometimes with Classical or Italianate touches. The building is Grade II listed.
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