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From Dover Express 23 September 1993
Special report by TERRY SUTTON
CLOSING DOWN
A major blow to tourism as landlords announce Dover's most famous
hotel is to shut.
DOVER'S famous seafront "White Cliffs Hotel" is to close on Christmas Eve
(1993) after landlords Dover Harbour Board refused to grant another long lease.
"They have told us they need the premises for their own purposes - I am
totally saddened," said the hotel's managing director Pam Gibbons.
Tourism leaders say the closure will be a serious blow to Dover
district's prospects of attracting more visitors.
Dover Harbour Board says it is
willing to grant a new lease from its expiry date next March - on a 12
month basis.
But this was not acceptable to the hotel management. who have decided on
a Christmas closure.
The decision has come as a shock to the full and part time 48 staff who
work there. Some have been working at the White Cliffs for more than a
quarter of a century.
It was 46 years ago, in the difficult days that followed the last war.
that Graham Lyon saw the potential of Dover as a port through which a
new generation of holidaymakers would pass.
He negotiated with Dover Harbour Board and his company. Graham Lyon Ltd.
obtained the lease for the attractive seafront premises with
views across the harbour to France.
The hotel, now with 56 bedrooms, reached its peak of popularity in the
1950s and 1960s when Sir Winston Churchill was one of the guests.
In those days anyone who was anyone, travelling to the Continent, stayed
the night at the "White Cliffs Hotel."
For nearly 40 years guests have dined at the White Cliffs' restaurant
while listening to Kathy Southam, now 84, play the piano there.
The directors of Graham Lyon Ltd are now Mrs Gibbons. Dover's former
town clerk lames A Johnson, and Peter Lyon, the son of the founder. Mrs
Gibbons has been with the White Cliffs for 17 years.
Solicitors for the hotel have explained they will have to close at
the end of this year to dispose of chattels and tenants' fittings so
vacant possession can be offered to the harbour board by the end of
March.
Paul Pinnock, chairman of the
White Cliffs Tourism Association was shocked to hear the news.
He said: "It's a great shame and it is a very serious blow to Dover's
attempts to attract more tourists."
At a meeting of the group, in Deal,
he had earlier said that the value to Dover district of a hotel with
conference facilities in the Wellington Dock regeneration plan would be
even more welcome than proposals.
Bill Fawcus, Dover Harbour Board's property general manager, says the
White Cliffs premises will soon be required for large scale
refurbishment that could not be carried out while the hotel was open.
"Ideally we would have liked to have carried out the refurbishment of
the premises in 1995-96." said Mr Fawcus.
"We were willing to extend the
lease for 12 months on the same
rent and terms."
Mr Fawcus is in charge of the £100
million regeneration project for
the Western Docks which is planned to include a new hotel in the
seafront area. He says the submission of the outline planning
application for the project to Dover council is imminent.
But Mr Fawcus points out proposals for a new hotel had nothing to do
with the decision over the "White Cliffs Hotel" lease. He expects work on
the Western Docks project, scheduled to take ten years to complete, to
start in 1994 with the hotel in the early stages.
The White Cliffs shock follows controversy over the harbour board's
decision to give tenants of Marine Court, also on the seafront, five
years to vacate their flats.
Mr Fawcus has emphasised there is no "hidden agenda" for the Marine
Court site. The board has no plans to build a hotel, filling station or
anything else there.
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