A brief history of The Grand Hotel Broadstairs later Grand Mansions
Welcome to Grand Mansions, formerly The Grand Hotel Broadstairs. Just a little bit about the history of the building. The original hotel opened in the Spring of 1884 the building at this time was not as we see it today having been much extended in late 1890’s.
Grand Hotel 1887 (copyright Francis Frith)
The original hotel had 50 bedrooms, the ground floor hosting a Coffee Room, Dining Room, Smoking Room and Bar while the upper basement had a Billards Room. Outside it had nearly 2 acres of gardens with Tennis Courts. The roof being flat had railings with a refreshment buffet and look out tower. The hotel was furnished with quality furniture and was set to compete with the Albion Hotel which had been offering accommodation in Broadstairs since 1760.
After several changes of ownership it was brought by The Gordon Hotels Company in 1897 who undertook extensive refurbishment works, doubling the size of the building.
Grand Hotel Broadstairs date unknown
The hotel now boasted 80 apartments and had a lift installed, a terrace ran along the sea facing area of the hotel with an awning which could be extended when necessary. It still had gardens and tennis courts in front of the hotel.
For two months during 1917 the hotel was requisitioned by the War Office for use of the Canadian Medical Corp for the use of convalescence of up to 150 convalescing officers. After this the patients were moved to facilities further inland due to the frequent airship raids in the Broadstairs/Ramsgate areas.
The hotel changed hands again in 1933 and a ballroom and swimming pool were added (since demolished and replaced by Charlston Court built in the mid nineties).
Ariel view of Grand Hotel showing ballroom and pool (date unknown)
It would have required quite a number of staff to keep the hotel running, in the national census taken in April 1891 (before the hotel was extended) in addition to the hotel manager and his family there are 10 domestic staff listed, 2 waiters, a scullery maid, porter, 2 chambermaids, a still room maid and a housekeeper. The nearby Grand Hotel Mews housed a Coachman/Groom and his family, no guests were listed at this time.
Ten years later, in March 1901 the census shows only a Caretaker and his family living in the hotel together with an assistant caretaker as the hotel had not yet opened for the season. The same was true in April 1911 when only a caretaker and his wife were shown living in the building.
The 1921 Census wasn’t taken until June by which time the hotel would have been open for guests numbering 14 on the night of 19th June. There were however more staff in the hotel than visitors, 36 including 2 receiving clerks, 11 waiters, 2 platemen, page, basement porter, lift attendant, kitchen porter, housekeeper, 2 bookkeepers, linen maid, 2 stillroom maids, 5 chambermaids, staff maid, night porter, vegetable cook and pâtissier. This was of course only the live in staff, other staff were shown living in the local vicinity including 2 carpenters and a stationary engine operator. The postcard on the next page held in the James Bentley archive is stated as showing staff from the Grand Hotel Broadstairs in 1907 and shows a similar number of staff to those listed in 1921.
On the 3rd September 1939 Britain declared war on Germany and a few weeks later, at the end of September, a register of all civilians was taken to aid the issue of identity cards and later ration books. This register shows the manager and his wife, a housekeeper, hotel stock taker, porter and a kitchen worker in residence although other staff were living nearby in Queens Gardens. At a later stage in the war the hotel was again requisitioned by the army for use by the Army Service Corps Officer Cadet Training Unit.
The hotel re-opened in early 1946. In the 1950’s the building was divided into flats. The adjoining ballroom and swimming pool were demolished in the early 1990’s prior to the erection of Charleston Court.
The basement areas of the building hosted licenced premises in the latter part of the last century. The last of these closed in 2002 and 6 further flats were incorporated into the building as Louisa bay Apartments, bringing the total number of apartments to 42, consisting of 1,2 and 3 bed apartments over 8 levels.
Lynn Rocke - January 2024