AN attractive postcard view of Dover lent by Mr Colin Gatehouse, of Friars Way, Dover. The card dates from the very early part of the century and beyond the Rifle Monument. provides a good view of the old Grand Hotel, a victim of bombing during the Second World War, with Granville Gardens In front and the former furniture depository of Hart and Company on the left.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday 3 February, 1893. 1d.

FIRE AT THE GRAND HOTEL

On Saturday evening a good deal of excitement was occasioned by a report of a fire at the “Grand Hotel.” A large crowd, some thousand strong, quickly assembled and found the police fire brigade on the spot. The fire had originated in the part of the hotel formerly, 4, Wellesley Terrace, from a devil which some plumbers had be using and had not extinguished, standing on some scaffold boards so that the heat might dry the walls of the room. Unfortunately the ashes set alight to the boards and burnt its way right through the flooring and dropped into the room below which has been used as a carpenters’ shop and was littered with shavings which quickly caught alight. The police with a hose reel however soon extinguished the flames, and in less than a quarter of an hour from the time that the alarm was given everything was quite safe. The house was being dried and there were fires in every room, and a watchman was employed to attend to them, so that even if the fire had occurred at a later hour it would have been discovered before it had gained much of a hold. The damage has been estimated at £40and insurance paid for that amount, but there was also a large number of carpenters’ tools which were destroyed and for which no compensation can be claimed.

Information taken from Dover Express.

DOVER promenade, with the shore end of the old Promenade Pier on the right, pictured about 1910. Dominant in the foreground are the Grand Hotel, facing Granville Gardens and the "Granville Buffet bars" and, centre, left, the tall Burlington Hotel.

The blocks of elegant seafront houses were all swept away after the war to make way for the Gateway block of flats - with the notable exception of Marine Court.

The postcard picture turned up in the most unlikely of places. Mr Guy Crampton, who was renovating 120 Coombe Valley Road (formerly Union Road), which he recently purchased, found the card beneath the hearth stone.

The card is remarkably well preserved considering that it has been nibbled around all four edges by mice and has probably been lost for over 50 years.

The card was shown to me (Bob Hollingsbee) by Mr Crampton's motherin-law, Mrs D. Love, of Elms Vale Road, Dover, who says Guy would be interested to know if Gladys Bonnage, whose name appears on the reverse of the postcard, is still alive.

It appears that young Gladys received the postcard as some kind of reward for obtaining full marks in an arithmetic test in 1915.

From the Dover Express, 21 January, 1910

The Grand Hotel were granted permission to sell at the Yeomanry Ball, to be held on 30th January at the Town Hall

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday, 29 June, 1951.

£1000 OFFERED FOR GRAND HOTEL DEMOLITION

Mystery of an Unclaimed Road

An offer to pay the Corporation a sum of £1000 for the right to demolish the Grand Hotel, the contractor retaining the salvage, was accepted by the Town Council at its monthly meeting on Tuesday.

The Council was told, sixteen tenders were received. All figures were not revealed, but a remark by Councillor A. B. Constable suggested that one tenderer asked for a payment, to him, of £4000 for the job.

Councillor Constable spoke of a difference of £5000 in the tenders and asked if all tenders were submitted on the same conditions.

After the Borough Engineer (Mr. D. R. Bevan) had given an assurance that this was so, Alderman F. C. Overton inquired about the future of the area, in view of a recent Government statement about reduced allowances for re-building blitzed areas.

Both Alderman R. L. Eckhoff and Alderman A. J. Fenn pointed out that the Grand Hotel was now a dangerous structure so that whatever the future of the area might be the building must come down.

It would be ridiculous to think of allowing it to stand for another five or six years, Alderman Eckhoff said.

Alderman Overton agreed that the hotel was now dangerous, but said it would be interesting, in the light of present circumstances, to have some information on the whole area.

Alderman Fenn replied that they were only dealing with the question of demolition of the hotel.

The Borough Engineer stated that the three most favourable tenders received payment to the Corporation of £1000, £505 and £500 respectively.

After Mr. Bevan's recommendation that the offer of £1000 be accepted had been approved he announced that the successful tenders were Messrs. Frank Luck, Ltd. 

From the Dover Express, 24 August 1951.

Grand Hotel to be Demolished

Now that the Ministry have given their decision on the Sea Front houses, the Grand Hotel is to be demolished.

The Planning Committee decided on Tuesday to recommend the Council to take this step after the Town Clerk had reported that the acquisition of the hotel had been completed and the converted value payment received from the War Damage Commission.

It was agree to recommend the Council to invite tenders for the demolition.

From the Dover Express, 24 August 1951.

ANOTHER LANDMARK GOING

The demolition of the Grand Hotel, which has stood untouched since it was badly damaged in the bombing raid in September, 1940, has now been in progress some weeks. Originally three houses, built in 1864, it was transformed into a hotel in 1893 and for nearly fifty years served the needs of the town for an establishment of this kind.

From the Dover Express, 24 August 1951.

THE END OF THE GRAND HOTEL

The removal of yet another Dover landmark as the demolition contractors complete the destruction of the Grand Hotel opens up the view of further war devastation beyond.

From the Dover Express, Thursday 2 September 2010

ONE YEAR INTO THE WAR, AND TOWN SEES HEAVIEST RAID YET.

By Terry Sutton from Way We Were.

SEPTEMBER 1940, exactly one year after the outbreak of war, and Dover received its heaviest attack, with bombs and shells falling simultaneously on the town for the first time. Meanwhile the Battle of Britain was being fought overhead.

The attack happened on Wednesday, September 11, when heavy damage was caused in the town, 16 people were killed and another 62 injured, some seriously.

Why did the enemy mount such a heavy onslaught on Dover that day?

The answer was what was going on around the enemy-captured ports of Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk, where Hitter was making preparations for a sea-borne invasion of England. A large German convoy was seen off the French coast and the enemy was trying to divert attention from it.

The German leader had ordered his generals and naval officers to carry out invasion rehearsals and, despite choppy seas, they tried to board heavily armed troops onto barges that were mostly designed for canal work and not for the sea.

It was chaos. After the war, those who took part told of craft overturning in the surf, boats crashing into each other and many heavily laden troops falling into the sea, some drowning.

Hitler was not impressed and, unknown at the time to the Allies, decided to call off any invasion, at least in 1940.

The RAF was gradually winning the fight against the Luftwaffe by early September, although losses were heavy on both sides. The enemy began switching tactics to night bombing while the RAF continued attacking concentrations of enemy invasion barges across the Channel.

It was pretty quiet in Dover itself during the first week of September, although there were 18 alerts as German bombers crossed the coast to attack London.

One early death in September was that of Gunner Joseph Pittock, whose home was at Capel. He was on his way to hospital when he was struck by shrapnel during a raid on September 4.

Bombs fell in the Maxton area on September 7, and the next day Cyril Tozer, 62, of Limekiln Street. was killed while working on his allotment at Aycliffe.

On September 8 there was heavy shelling with about 160 missiles fired, many falling into the harbour. But four civilians and a soldier were killed. Five others were Injured.

The Burlington Hotel, with people living there in flats, suffered its first damage when part of the central tower was demolished. Charlton Mill was also hit, as was a garage in Elms Vale.

Then came the heavy attack on September 11, apparently to keep the Allies busy while the Germans carried out their invasion rehearsal. The bulk of the damage to Dover was in the Townwall Street/St James' Street area, where 26 bombs dropped by Dorniers and ten shells fell.

Wrecked were The Grand Hotel, the Sailors Home on Wellesley Road, where the end of The Gateway now stands and the "Sussex Arms" In Townwall Street. Three generations of one family died in the bombing of the pub.

It was here that Royal Navy stoker George Lowe tunnelled his way through 15 feet of debris to rescue the injured. While doing so he took off his jacket and someone stole his kit. He received the George Medal for his bravery.

In his autobiography, published after the war, the late Jack Hewitt claimed it was he who carried out much of the rescue and should have received a medal!

One of those killed in the raid was Cllr John Walker, 54, who had earlier received publicity for rejecting government calls for the evacuation of Dover. He was killed tending his boats on the seafront.

During the raid the first oil bomb was dropped on the town. It fell in Laurestone Place, setting fire to a house. Another bomb landed in Folkestone Road near The "Engineer," but failed to explode. When the authorities tried to remove the bomb it blew up, killing gas company employee Frederlck Hayward, 63. The crater covered the width of the road and temporarily isolated Hougham.

After this big raid Dover enjoyed a one-day respite before four days of bombing attacks. One bomb hit a trawler alongside the Prince of Wales Pier, killing six crew members.

On September 16 Dover was hit by both bombs and shells, but not at the same time. One shell hit the sea bathing baths on the seafront.

Sirens wailed virtually every night as German bombers flew over Dover heading for London, and many Dovorians took to sleeping in the deep shelters under the cliffs. Others abandoned the town. The Pilot Office on the seafront was closed and the pilots and staff switched to Gravesend.

Six gunners were killed by a mine explosion at Broadlees on September 22, and the same day a British bomber crashed at East Langdon. More bombs were dropped on September 24, but most fell harmlessly in the countryside.

On September 26 four shells fell in the Market Square area, killing two and injuring 18 others. Killed were Church Street newsagent Edith Cameron, 62, and James Holman, 20, of Manor Road, who had been married for only two months.

The next day a lone enemy plane dived on the town, dropping four bombs, and later in the day came a long spell of shelling. An army officer was injured and died in hospital.

The very dangerous month ended with more shelling, with salvoes of three sent over every half hour.

One shell, landing in Market Street, killed builders' foreman William DutnalI, 66, of Church Alkham. Later in the day William Grey, 75, of Erith Street was found dead in his garden, killed by the blast of one of the shells.

During the month 34 people had been killed and at least 130 injured.