The Grand Ocean Hotel in Saltdean, East Sussex, is empty. In its Art Deco
heyday, Bette Davis swished down the spiral staircase and dancers filled the
ballroom. Now there are no staff and no guests, only ghosts - and pigeons.
“We're giving the hotel a new lease of life,” says John Inglis, the sales and
marketing director of the developer, Explore Living. When it bought the
Grade II listed building in 2005, it looked less than grand. “The windows
were smashed, and vandals and vermin had got in. We're creating 279 one, two
and three-bedroom apartments but aim to preserve the original character,” he
says.
The Grand Ocean Hotel opened in 1938. Bright white stucco and sexy curves
echoed the colours of the cliffs and the shape of the waves. It is one of a
string of Art Deco icons stretching along the South Coast from Brighton to
Bexhill: Brighton, six miles away, has Embassy Court, designed by the
Modernist hero, Wells Coates; Bexhill has the striking De La Warr Pavilion;
Saltdean has the Grand Ocean Hotel and the Lido, both designed by Richard
Jones.
Billy Butlin bought the site in 1953 for £250,000, calling it: “The best
investment I ever made.” Shortly afterwards, Jimmy Tarbuck did a turn as a
redcoat. As sunny package tours became popular, chilly seaside hotels
declined and the Grand closed in 2005.
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“Saltdean isn't Brighton, but it's changing,” says Martin Derby, the manager
of Carruthers & Luck estate agents. “We're getting more thirtysomethings
and young families because they can afford more space: it's quieter and
safer.”
It's certainly quiet. Saltdean is awash with bungalows. The whole town seems
to have retired. It has none of the buzz of Brighton - where prices rose by
6 per cent over the past year, according to the most recent figures from
Halifax. “For the price of a small Brighton flat you get a house, a garden
and a guaranteed sea view here,” Derby says.
“We're not banking on Saltdean being the next Brighton,” Inglis says. “Our
buyers want to be near Brighton but not in it.”
More than half of the properties sold off-plan have gone to second-homers from
London. The first show apartments have just opened, and the last builder
should leave in 2010. The converted hotel will house 46 apartments ranging
from £209,995 for the only studio to £589,995 for a two/three-bedroom,
two-bathroom apartment with two terraces and sea views. Unlisted buildings
from the Butlins days have been demolished and four new blocks are going up
behind the old hotel. Each flat comes with an underground parking space and
access to communal gardens that were supposedly inspired by the bow of the
Queen Mary. A fifth building, on the site of the hotel car park, will be
affordable housing.
None of the hotel rooms remain. A “development manager” will sit behind the
restored reception desk. The great curving expanse of the old dining room
will become a doctor's surgery or childcare facility. “Definitely not a
nightclub,” Inglis says.
Clues to the hotel's past are everywhere: the licensee's name is still by the
door; gaudy shreds of carpet cling to the spiral staircase; a faded sign in
a Forties font promises a temporary cloakroom. The old ballroom floor has
been ruined by leaks and can't be saved. But much, including the Crittle
windows, can. It's as much a restoration as a conversion. The foyer houses
several fine features: giant ceiling plaster doughnuts, a linoleum seascape
on the floor and porthole windows peeping out to sea.
Let's hope that Explore Living keeps the two built-in aquariums facing the
door. Grand Ocean could once again be a glamorous address. Maybe even fit
for Bette Davis.
Fact file
The average price for a one-bedroom flat in Saltdean - postcode BN2 - is
£163,100; two-bedroom homes there cost £230,800, according to mouseprice.com
Flats comprise more than 40 per cent of local housing stock
Saltdean does not have its own secondary school but the legendary girls'
public school of Roedean is close by
Explore Living is the residential arm of Laing O'Rourke builders, noted for
Terminal 5 at Heathrow
Details: grandocean.co.uk;
Carruthers & Luck, 01273 303064, carruthersandluck.co.uk
