Worthing’s Beach Hotel

As we saw in the previous article in this series {http://www.worthingherald.co.uk/news/nostalgia/the-changing-face-of-worthing-s-heene-parade-1-6790664|(Looking Back, June 11)|click here}, the structure that became the Beach Hotel was originally a terrace called Heene Parade, built in 1865.

The Beach Hotel opened in one of the Heene Parade houses – No. 4 – in 1914.

Within 20 years the Beach had acquired the whole terrace, which was transformed in 1935–6 into a 94-bedroom art deco hotel.

The original Victorian terrace was completely encased.

An east-facing view of the Beach Hotel, taken soon after the Second World War. On the left is the entrance to the Burlington Brasserie

Further changes and improvements took place over the years. As late as 1969 only six of the bedrooms had integral bathrooms, but by 1972 this had risen to 76.

For three-quarters of a century, the Beach was one of Worthing’s leading hotels, receiving, for example, a complimentary review in 2004 from Paddy Burt, the Daily Telegraph’s hotel reviewer for 18 years.

She described the Beach as “a grand seaside hotel that’s not in the least bit grandiose”, adding that its balconies “suggested sunny summer afternoons of long ago”.

“There’s a tendency nowadays,” Burt concluded, “for old-fashioned hotels to be ‘modernised’. If this happened to the Beach Hotel, it would be ruined.”

A west-facing view of the Beach Hotel, taken soon after the Second World War SUS-150307-102602003

This risk was averted when the hotel was demolished in 2012.

Past and present

Although it is easy for those that immerse themselves in the history of a town to favour past over future, even those with a historical perspective have to accept that no town can be preserved in aspic.

Nonetheless many – perhaps most – of the fine buildings that have been lost to Worthing over the past 75 years could have been saved if more sensitive and imaginative decisions had been taken.

The Beach Hotel around 1960. Nothing much has changed apart from the vintage of the cars parked in the street

A few buildings, however, had perhaps come to the end of their useful lives – and this probably applied in the case of the Beach Hotel.

Soon before the Beach closed in 2012, we visited the hotel and had a friendly and informative chat with Linda Martin, joint manager of the hotel with her brother (and both of them members of the Farnes family, which had owned the hotel from very early in its existence).

Linda – who helpfully provided me with documentary material from which some of the information in this article derives – told us that the hotel had reached the point where it simply could not be upgraded to 21st century requirements.

As we have seen, the Beach was converted from a relatively modest terrace built 150 years ago.

There is a limit to how much structural change can be accomplished within the fabric of an old building, and over the years the Beach had already been knocked about a great deal.

Replacing the Beach

The report by New Historic Environment Consulting that help