The Granville Hotel, Ramsgate, Kent, on the southeast coast of England, was a former hotel designed by Edward Welby Pugin, son of Augustus Pugin. The Granville was a hotel between 1869 and 1946 before being sold by proprietors Spiers & Pond.
The building is now Granville House, a private residence containing 48 self-contained flats that are managed by the leaseholders. Granville House was Grade II listed on 16 October 1973.[1] In 2010 the lease holders of Granville House gained the Right To Manage and are now responsible for looking after the building themselves.[2] On 18 December 2012, at a public auction, the freehold of Granville House was purchased by Mr Eliasz Englander for £156,000.[3]
After the death of Augusta Emma d'Este (Lady Truro) on 21 May 1866, the remainder of the land from the Mount Albion Estate was sold off to developers.[4] Business partners, Robert Sankey, John Barnet Hodgson and Edward Welby Pugin purchased a plot of land on Ramsgate's east cliff for £9,250.[5]
In 1867, they built an eight-house terrace in the Gothic style. These were substantial properties, with four floors and a basement. Each house had a private entrance. The houses were marketed as exclusive villas to be let for weeks at a time to wealthy visitors to Ramsgate who were expected to arrive at the nearby Ramsgate Sands station below the cliff.
The terrace, described by Catriona Blaker from her book - Edward Pugin and Kent, his life and work within the county, 2012: "Seen from the front, the main elevation of these very substantial five floor stock brick residences was Gothic – definitely an urban, modern Gothic, not even picturesquely asymmetrical. Each end was the same, grandly gabled, with carefully detailed stone balconies and a large and elegant Gothic window on the fifth floor, and there were bold structural bays and chimneys on the side elevations."
In 1869, the owners decided to convert the building into a hotel that was formally opened with an inaugural ball on 7 December 1869.[6] The new hotel was named "The Granville" in honour of George Leveson Gower, 2nd Earl Granville.
Queen Victoria, when young, had stayed nearby in what is now Albion House.
Edward Pugin's fireplace inside Granville House. Supported on red marble columns with the mantel carved in Caen stone. It bears the Granville coat of arms and the motto - Pile on the logs to make the fire great. Circa 1869.Granville Hotel cup & saucer, pepper shaker, plate and nickel-plated tankard.Granville Hotel crest of arms.
The Granville was a spa hotel with over 25 different kinds of baths, including Turkish[7] The baths opened in December, 1871 and were the main feature of the hotel throughout its life. These baths were later demolished in 1980.[8]
The Granville may have contributed to Edward Pugin's bankruptcy in 1873. In the following years the hotel was owned by the bankers Coutts, an additional hall (new Granville Hall) was designed and completed in July, 1874 by the architect J T Wimperis.[9] The hall was demolished in 1982.[10]
The hotel was purchased in 1877 by Edmund Francis Davis – a solicitor and business tycoon who twice contested the Isle of Thanet constituency for the Liberals. Davis developed the Granville Marina below the east cliff, and inaugurated the Granville Express – a daily train service from Charing Cross to Westgate and Ramsgate Sands. Davis also laid a marble skating rink in the Granville Gardens (now Poldark Court), and completed a tunnel begun by Pugin, from the gardens to the sands. The tunnel exits at number 3 Granville Marina.
frangas non flectes - You may break me, but you shall not bend me.
Throughout the 1880s and 1890s the hotel suffered frequent bankruptcies before being purchased by Spiers & Pond Ltd in December 1898.[11] The front elevation was altered by the architect Horace Field in 1899, the Granville Tower was lowered and the inside of the building was extensively remodelled.
In January 1915, the Granville was requisitioned by the Government and became The Granville Canadian Special Hospital. It mainly treated patients suffering from shell shock, nerve injuries and injuries to bones and joints. In April 1917 the hospital accommodated 809 wounded Canadian soldiers. The hospital closed in the same year and was relocated to Buxton, Derbyshire.[12]
The Granville reopened in 1920 after a £60,000 modernisation. It was leased to the Empire Hotels Group in the 1930s.
A corner of the hotel was destroyed by enemy action on 12 November 1940.[13] The building had closed and was fortunately empty during the raid. The building sits on network of caves and nearby tunnels that were modified in 1939. The bomb damaged corner was rebuilt in 2004 by Oakleigh Developments Ltd and became Granville Court. In 1947, the hotel was converted into flats and renamed Granville House. For the next 30 years, the building was managed and then owned by William and Florence Hamilton. The Granville was a popular venue for ballroom dancing in the 1950s and 1960s as William Hamilton had installed a sprung floor. This hall, demolished in 1982, was also used as a count during elections and to host private and civic functions. In February 1956, the basement became a jazz club called The Cave[14] From 1974 until the 1990s, the building passed into a number of different owners and financial backers.
A fire was ignited at the bottom of the staircase on the night of Thursday 25 April 1985.[15] The flames were prevented from spreading due to newly installed fire doors. The teak staircase was destroyed but was later restored in a £1.5 million restoration program.[16]
Public House & Banqueting Hall
The building includes a former public house named the Granville Bars, that are located on the seafront corner. The bar closed around 1991 and is currently leased by Punch Taverns.
Adjoining the bar area is the banqueting hall - completed in October 1869 by Edward Pugin. The centre-piece of the hall is a massive fireplace inscribed with the motto Pile on the logs to make the fire great. The fireplace is still in situ and cost over £250 in 1869.[17] The hall has a segmented ceiling, and the floorboards are laid with New Zealand pine. The banquet hall is listed on The Ramsgate Society's Buildings at Risk Register.[18]
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin was an English architect, designer, artist and critic with French and Swiss origins. He is principally remembered for his pioneering role in the Gothic Revival style of architecture. His work culminated in designing the interior of the Palace of Westminster in Westminster, London, and its renowned clock tower, the Elizabeth Tower, which houses the bell known as Big Ben. Pugin designed many churches in England, and some in Ireland and Australia. He was the son of Auguste Pugin, and the father of Edward Welby Pugin and Peter Paul Pugin, who continued his architectural firm as Pugin & Pugin.
Ramsgate is a seaside town and civil parish in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2021 it had a population of 42,027. Ramsgate's main attraction is its coastline, and its main industries are tourism and fishing. The town has one of the largest marinas on the English south coast, and the Port of Ramsgate provided cross-channel ferries for many years.
Broadstairs is a coastal town on the Isle of Thanet in the Thanet district of east Kent, England, about 80 miles (130 km) east of London. It is part of the civil parish of Broadstairs and St Peter's, which includes St Peter's, and had a population in 2011 of about 25,000. Situated between Margate and Ramsgate, Broadstairs is one of Thanet's seaside resorts, known as the "jewel in Thanet's crown". The town's coat of arms' Latin motto is Stella Maris. The name derives from a former flight of steps in the chalk cliff, which led from the sands up to the 11th-century shrine of St Mary on the cliff's summit.
Margate is a seaside town in the Thanet District of Kent, England. It is located on the north coast of Kent and covers an area of 2 miles long, 16 miles north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Westbrook.
Ramsgate railway station serves the town of Ramsgate in Thanet in Kent, England. The station lies on the Chatham Main Line, 79 miles 21 chains (127.6 km) down the line from London Victoria, the Kent Coast Line, and the Ashford to Ramsgate line. The station is managed by Southeastern, which operates all trains serving it.
Margate railway station serves the town of Margate in Thanet, Kent, England. It is 73 miles 69 chains (118.9 km) down the line from London Victoria. The station and all trains that serve the station are operated by Southeastern.
John Shaw Sr. (1776–1832) was an English architect. He was architect to Christ's Hospital in London, and to the Port of Ramsgate. Many of his works, including the church of St Dunstan-in-the-West in Fleet Street, London, were in a Gothic Revival style.
Edward Welby Pugin was an English architect, the eldest son of architect Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and Louisa Barton and part of the Pugin & Pugin family of church architects. His father was an architect and designer of Neo-Gothic architecture, and after his death in 1852 Edward took up his successful practice. At the time of his own early death in 1875, Pugin had designed and completed more than one hundred Catholic churches.
The Church and Friary of St Francis, known locally as Gorton Monastery, is a Grade II* listed former Franciscan friary in Gorton, Manchester, England. It was designed by the noted Victorian architect Edward Welby Pugin and built 1866–1872. Gorton Monastery is a noted example of Gothic Revival architecture.
Ramsgate as a name has its earliest reference as 'Ramisgate' or 'Remmesgate' in 1275, from Anglo-Saxon 'Hraefn's geat, or 'Raven's cliff gap', later to be rendered 'Ramesgate' from 1357.
Ramsgate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England, with a population of 39,639 in the '2001 UK Census. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. Ramsgate's main attraction is its coastline, and its main industries are tourism and fishing. The town has one of the largest marinas on the English south coast, and the Port of Ramsgate provided cross-channel ferries for many years.
Cliffsend is a village and civil parish situated almost 2 miles (3 km) west of Ramsgate, Kent, United Kingdom, in the Thanet local government district.
The Grange, Ramsgate, Kent, on the coast of southern England was designed by the Victorian architect and designer Augustus Pugin for himself. Built between 1843 and 1844, in the Gothic Revival style, Pugin intended it both as a home and as a manifesto for his architectural philosophy. Rescued from demolition by the Landmark Trust in 1997, the Grange is a Grade I listed building.
Pugin & Pugin was a London-based family firm of church architects.
Edmund Francis Davis was a British American solicitor and a businessman who once owned the Westgate Estate, in Kent, and the Granville Hotel, Ramsgate.
John Barnet Hodgson was a Ramsgate Mayor, businessman and long serving Ramsgate postmaster.
The Granville Marina is a street in Ramsgate, Kent. It was originally a parade of small shops, tea rooms and houses built in 1877 in the Old English style. The site is reached by Marina Road from Victoria Parade. The Marina formed part of the Granville Hotel, Ramsgate complex planned by Edmund Francis Davis. The buildings also included a large hall on the western end Marina Hall - since demolished. The buildings are partly built into the chalk cliffs below the former hotel.
Dedicated to Saints Ethelbert and Gertrude, St Ethelbert's Church is a Roman Catholic church on Hereson Road in Ramsgate, Kent, England. Designed by Peter Paul Pugin, the church was built by W. W. Martin and Sons of Ramsgate and is the Catholic parish church.
St Augustine's Church or the Shrine of St Augustine of Canterbury is a Roman Catholic church in Ramsgate, Kent. It was the personal church of Augustus Pugin, the renowned nineteenth-century architect, designer, and reformer. The church is an example of Pugin's design ideas, and forms a central part of Pugin's collection of buildings in Ramsgate. Having built his home, Pugin began work on St Augustine's in 1846 and worked on it until his death in 1852. His sons completed many of the designs. This is the site where Pugin is buried, in a vault beneath the chantry chapel he designed, alongside several members of his family.
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