A Grand Hotel for Brighton
In 1862, The Times, which was always ready to report on major developments in Brighton, noted that a new hotel was to be built on the site of the recently demolished western battery, a reminder of the Napoleonic Wars.
The Brighton Hotel Company’s prospectus sought to raise £75,000 in £5 shares. The money was soon raised, largely from Londoners, and a chairman and directors of the company appointed. John Whichcord, who was already an established architect, designed the building. Construction by Glentons of Blackheath took about 18 months and the Grand was formally opened on Wednesday 20 July 1864 with a typical Victorian ritual consisting of a grand tour of the building and a dinner, all reported in detail by the local newspapers.
Although Brighton and Hove had a lot of building firms and specialists in interior decorations, the Grand Hotel Company largely selected London firms to complete the interior. A Gamble of Westminster did the carving and Signor Galle executed the paintings in the main rooms and the grand staircase. The clerk of works also came from London.
A grand opening
Many of the London newspapers were represented at the opening, including The Daily Telegraph, Building News and The Sun, reflecting the strong interest in Brighton that Londoners had, due to its fashionable status and easy accessibility as a seaside resort. The journalists heard that the site cost £15,000 and that the hotel’s foundation was a ‘natural bed of concrete’ which was regarded as a bonus. The building cost £150,000, partly because of construction problems at the level of the kitchen, which stretched under the main rooms of the hotel and so columns strong enough to sustain 850 tons of pressure on each had to be erected to support the building above.
The directors hoped that the hotel would earn at least £20,000 a year from letting the rooms and this, combined with the profit on wine, would result in a handsome return. Amongst the facilities they provided were separate coffee rooms for ladies and for gentlemen, smoking and billiard rooms. A novelty—the lift—conveyed passengers to their apartments. Four more lifts were used by the service staff. The 260 rooms were gaslit and all had running water, an achievement in a nine-story building in the 1860s. Rooms cost from 25p to £1.50p a day on the first floor, but from 12½p to 50p on the fourth and upper floors.
A handsome return fails to materialise
The Grand began its life with heavy commitments, for the company had to borrow money in order to complete the hotel. In 1863 it borrowed £30,000 and in 1865 a further £8,000 from Londoners. By 1867 shareholders were unhappy about the directors’ management and in 1868 new directors were appointed. The annual report described the hotel’s affairs as being in a critical state in 1867. Economies in 1868 helped; the closing of the London office saved £1,500-£2,000. A new manager, Mr Quiddington, was appointed and he established a laundry, which further reduced costs. All purchases were now to be paid in cash to gain the benefits of discounts and to control cashflow.
In 1868 the company’s net profit was £3,147 on a turnover of just over £217,400 and the shareholders were asked to forego a dividend, the profit to be applied to reducing the capital expenditure account. The new directors, with one exception, were Londoners. The hotel’s business was not helped by the adverse national publicity which Brighton was receiving due to a deficient sewage system, which was being associated with the risk of contracting contagious diseases.
Fortunes start to improve
In 1870 business improved but the directors proposed to pay only part of the profits as a dividend of three per cent; the rest was to help to offset debts from the hotel’s early years. The directors also asked for a fee, having not received one since the company was reformed in 1867. By 1871 the hotel’s fortunes were improving and the directors were able to pay off mortgages and in 1875 applications for an issue of debentures arising from a circular to existing shareholders was oversubscribed.
By 1876 the management had accepted that no less than £3,000 a year was needed to keep the building’s fabric and furnishings in good order and from then that sum became a fixed annual charge. A net profit of £6,337 resulted from a turnover of £193,971.
In the 1880s turnover rose to fluctuate at around £200,000, with a net profit of around £12,000. The company tried to keep up to date, introducing electric light in 1885 and claiming it to be well worth the higher running costs when compared with gas.
A settled existence
Little evidence remains of other aspects of life in the hotel. Letters suggest that it acquired a regular clientele and that some preferred particular rooms and booked them regularly. Some visitors did not pay their bills, others forgot items and asked for them to be posted on. Items were stolen and others left in their place; one man wrote from Bolton in 1882 to say that his mac had been stolen and the one he now had was left in its place. A lady from Lancaster was delighted in 1883 when her rings were sent on to her.
The manager purchased a lot of his provisions and furnishings from London, paying the London Brighton and South Coast Railway for carriage to the hotel. In 1881 he was buying goods by the ton; two tons sent second class cost 55p for carriage, one ton first class cost 75p. From the Army and Navy Store in London he bought 19 doz. Greenwich Sperm Candles; from Newmans in Paternoster Row, sheets each with the Grand’s motif sewn on by hand. Carpets came from Blyths of Chiswell Street. Local firms provided some goods: Diplocks in Western Road supplied china and glass, and the Grimsby fish stores of St James Street supplied fish, including mackerel at 2½p to 4p a pound and salmon at 7½p to 9p a pound.
Further improvements are made
In 1886 prices were revised. Table d’hote breakfast, lunch, dinner, room attendance and use of public facilities cost 60p a day, except at Easter, during the Goodwood and Brighton race seasons and the autumn season which began on 1 October. During 1887 and 1888 the main rooms were refurbished and electric chandeliers installed. A portico and a covered way were erected at the entrance. Refurbishment was continued in 1889 when new carpets were laid and all wooden bedsteads were replaced with new brass ones. Electric lighting was then available in every room. The refurbishing was regarded as capital expenditure which would be written off over 10 years.
In spite of the improvements the hotel had a bad year in 1891, due in part to bad weather. The net profit was only £2,499 from a turnover of £208,916. The season was worse in 1893, the net profit having dwindled to £825, and the hotel’s electric lighting system had to be modified. In 1895 the hotel was valued because the directors wanted to raise four per cent mortgage debenture stock. The hotel then occupied ¾ acre, and the 211 bedrooms could accommodate 324 visitors. There were 17 private sitting rooms. Debenhams, the valuers, noted that the ‘sanitary arrangements’ had just been overhauled (there had been complaints in 1893). The building was value at £150,000, excluding the business, goodwill, furniture and plant. The latter were valued at £50,000 excluding wine.
At the end of the 1890s the workforce consisted of: a manager and his assistant, 10 waiters, 15 coffee room staff, 11 day and night porters, four pages, 19 kitchen staff, four plate-and-knife-room staff, 14 laundry ladies and nine more doing a variety of jobs—in total around 75 people. Some staff were German. The cooks were the best paid.
Adjacent property acquired
In 1900 Hobden’s Baths to the west of the hotel were leased, guests having had preferential discounts there since the hotel opened, and money had to be raised for work to link the new acquisition to the hotel. In addition, as the return of the year was poor, the shareholders did not receive a dividend. By 1900, the hotel attracted staff from all over Britain. Fifty letters of application were received for an assistant manager’s post in 1904.
Hobdens was purchased in 1908-9 and then integrated into the hotel; a ball room, a smoking room and a service room were constructed out of revenue. However, although the turnover for 1910 was £229,705 the net profit was on £3,395.
The effects of war
In 1913 the directors were particularly anxious, having had to cope with high costs of provisions, a ‘lightning strike’ of the staff at Easter that occurred after demands had been made by them, and concern about the hotel’s financial base, particularly after expenditure on Hobden’s Baths. From 1914 the First World War affected the hotel in several ways, which included food prices, staff, and in addition the weather was very wet during the season. However, by 1917 dividends were being paid. In 1919 there was a full complement of staff for which the total wage bill was £127 per week. Baumgarten, the chef, was the best paid person; he received £6 a week, the head waiter earned £1 and the kitchen cleaner 80p.
During the 1930s alterations to the banqueting room and the addition of a hairdressing salon for ladies were considered. A lot of the daily business consisted of local functions such as the London Road Traders’ Dinner and Dance and wedding receptions. Regular events included the Brighton and Hove Musical Club’s weekly concert. A scrapbook of events was kept.
The hotel was requisitioned during the Second World War and occupied by the Air Force. A landmine that exploded on the seafront damaged it and the company successfully claimed from the War Damage Commission. After repairs, the hotel quickly returned to business, attracting conferences (eg. British & American Tobacco, Seegas and the International Civil Aviation Organisation in 1953), receptions, weddings and other local events.
Distinguished guests
Among the hotel’s famous visitors were Emperor Louis Napoleon III, President Kennedy, the Duke of Windsor and President Reagan.
This article originally appeared in the Sussex Archaeological Society Newsletter, no 5, 1986 p514