DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Sort file:- Ramsgate, March, 2021.

Page Updated:- Sunday, 07 March, 2021.
PUB LIST PUBLIC HOUSES Paul Skelton

Earliest 1897-

 Hotel St Cloud

Latest 1919

(Name to)

Granville Terrace

Ramsgate

 

I know nothing of this establishment at present other than the following newspaper article.

 

From the Whitstable Times, 20 December, 1902.

GATE, HOTEL KEEPER.

In this case the liabilities amounted to £3,111 3d., while there were no assets.

Sir. G. Hardiaty appeared for debtor, Mr. Robinson represented the petitioning creditor while Mr. A. B. Burrows appeared on behalf of the creditors.

Under examination by the Acting Official Receiver (Mr. A. K. Mowll), debtor said in September, 1900, he purchased the goodwill of the “Hotel St. Cloud,” Ramsgate, for £500. The money was borrowed, and was still outstanding.

The trade of the hotel was misrepresented. The business was not, a success. About a year ago he found he was not making it pay. He did not file his petition then as his friends guaranteed to bank £600. He had now commenced an action against the owner of the premises in respect to certain matters arising out of the tenancy. He was claiming £3,000 damages. His friends had paid a sum on account of the action he was bringing. He might have paid £5 himself. His largest creditor was Mr. W. F. Almond, an army contractor. He lent debtor money as he was an old friend of his, and he went surety for him as well. In the very first place Almond lent him £785 to begin with. The purchase money (£785) included the brokers fees and his solicitor's fees. Almond also paid the rent on three occasions, and then repaid £600 to the bank. Debtor did not think he had paid anything off. Bankrupt owed T. Barry £41. That was one of his sureties when he started. Barry, Almond, and Champion went surety for £400 between them, Debtor's friends provided him with cash to go on with. He had opposition in the “Granville Hotel.” It had been closed for two years. His takings for the year September, 1900, to August, 1901, amounted to £2,364, while for the year September, 1901, to August, 1902, they totalled £2,195. The expenses of the hotel each year amounted to £1,540, and to that had to he added the cost of all foodstuffs. There was no profit at all.

Examined by Mr. Robinson:— He had managed a large number of hotels before. He had had experience at Newmarket, Southampton, Bexhill, Gravesend, and in India. Not the whole of them were successful, but he had had successes in India. He was expecting to make a success of the “Hotel St. Cloud,” as he had friends at the back of him.

The examination was adjourned until January 8th next.

 

Further research dug up the following article as an excerpt from Discover Ramsgate by Don Long:-

First erected as private houses in 1881 and called Granville Terrace. In 1897 a Mr R Stacey converted five of the eight houses into the Hotel St. Cloud. On 29th June 1904 the then chef Mr G. Scriven prepared an eight course meal at the hotel for the Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyle, who had just opened the Royal Victoria Pavilion, erected to the memory of her mother, Queen Victoria.

Later that year on 15th July Mr Stacey became one of the first directors of the 'East Kent Times'. Together with some friends he practically initiated the summer entertainments in the town scoring striking successes with fetes in Ellington Park.

In 1919 the hotel was sold for £10,000 to a Mr Sugden who changed the name 'St. Cloud' to 'San Clu' in 1922 because of the local populace insisted on pronouncing it 'St. Cloud' instead of 'San Clu' (as in the phonetic spelling in French). A disastrous fire in 1928 destroyed the first four sections of the hotel. The blaze could be seen in Deal and Dover: several people lost their lives in the building.

After the fire a local building firm, in conjunction with the Ramsgate Property Development Company, demolished the burnt out shell and made the remainder safe. The hotel then occupied the first two houses of the remaining four. In 1935 Mrs Elsie Robson acquired the hotel. During the War the Army took over and it became a large billet for troops. In 1944 Mrs Robson regained occupancy and re-opened the hotel; she then purchased a third house and some years later, the last making the hotel as it is today. Many famous and infamous people have visited the hotel - Randolph Churchill, Archbishops Lang, Fisher, Ramsey and Coggan, Royal visits from the Belgian, Danish and Thai Royal families. From show business the list inclides Benny Hill, Jimmy Handley, Leon Cortez, and many many others.

 

LICENSEE LIST

STACEY Mr 1897+

 

If anyone should have any further information, or indeed any pictures or photographs of the above licensed premises, please email:-
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