Granville in Ramsgate

"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" so says Wikipedia

 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."
The Granville is Grade II listed and the story is as follows
"Hotel and flats. 1869 by and for Edward Welby Pugin, altered after 1873 and c.1900. Gothick revival, with later Neo-Georgian added details. Stock brick and slate roof. Four storeys, attic and basement with raised paved ground floor ballustraded. Tuscan colonnade and balcony, buttresses to cornice and parapet with gable to right, 2 gabled half-dormers and Mansard roof with 5 Queen Anne Style dormers and stacks to left, centre and right. Arched recessed surround to casement in end right gable. Tripartite sashes and French windows over 2 storey canted bays, paired to centre left and centre right and single to right with iron balconies, and paired segmentally headed sashes and French windows, with balconies on 2nd floor. Pierced stone balcony to right on 3rd floor.Tripartite full-height sashes and French windows on ground floor in moulded and keyed surrounds, with large double panelled doors in 4th bay from left, with traceried semi-circular fanlight marked by pediment with cartouche in arcade. Cast iron grille with large openings to basement. The whole facade was once symmetrical, an additional 2 bays (with end gable) demolished at end left. The iron balconies and whole of ground floor replaced the original Gothic style features c.1900. Right return: the 1st 4 bays echo the front elevation, with irregular 4 storeyed block behind, more "Lombardi" Gothic in style with buttress-stacks (with cornices) rebated segmentally headed sashes, brick bonding, Lombard frieze parapet, and terminal tower, now with battlemented top stage, with circular vice , massive battered buttresses and brick balcony at 2nd floor level, with rendered arched area over; the adjacent block with Lions Rampant as finials bearing the Pugin motto: En Avant. Interior: Tuscan columned entrance hall with panelling and
cornice and swagged fireplace all C18 classical in style, with turned baluster stair in same style. Baronial style fireplace with engaged columns in Banqueting Hall. Coffered ceiling. Developed by Pugin as part of a general scheme on the Mount Albion House estate (see items in Albert Road, Augusta Road and Victoria Parade), Pugin filed bankruptcy in 1873 (£187,000 liabilities), Mr. Edmund Davis purchased and converted from houses to Hotel, adding facilities (and possibly the whole of the rear blocks, although still by Pugin). Badly damaged 1940 and partially demolished since. (See Busson, Ramsgate, 107)"

An advert appeared in the Illustrated London News

It is said that there was originally a tunnel from the Hotel directly onto the Sands coming out in one of these properties on the lower prom however when the Granville theatre was built the tunnel was closed.

At the rear of the plot, which is now a building plot, was the Ballroom and at the front right is a bar currently waiting for someone to spend money on it.

 

 Also at one time during the war it was used as a convalescent home for Canadian soldiers and several pictures remain from that time.

Much of the lower prom was named after the hotel and became an addition to the entertainment at the former Railway site.

The last picture is the dance floor of what was known as the Marina bar which for many years was a dance hall on the curve of the roadway down to the lower prom.