Going for a Song

From the East Kent Mercury 3 November 1994

East Kent Mercury reporter Amanda McDine with the bedroom she bought for £80 at the Granville Hotel auction at St Margaret's

Photo by Mike Waterman

Article by Amanda McDine.

WITH heart pounding and adrenalin pumping I held up my bidding card as nonchalantly as possible. "Yes, £80. That's right," I squeaked.

I was bidding for the entire contents of a bedroom in Saturday's auction at the Granville Hotel (writes Amanda McDine).

The hotel, although damp, peeling and faintly musty, has a genteel charm and the auction had attracted bidders in their hundreds. I was astounded when the first bedroom under the hammer had been sold for just £20. So when the next one came up I knew I had to have it at all costs - well, £80, anyway.

Bidding at an auction is much better than doing drugs. The high is unmistakable, there is no danger of overdosing and no hangover afterwards.

I bought the room. Unfortunately I was not familiar with my new acquisition as although I had wandered around the hotel the day before I had lost track of the warren of bedrooms I had seen.

Dashing upstairs I found my room. A double bed, a satin walnut dressing table and pine bedside cabinet both hiding under several coats of white paint. A mirror, a carpet, curtains, a bin, two tub chairs in need of reupholstering and a fantastic view. Definitely £80 well spent, I thought.

Wandering downstairs again I listened to some of the bidding going on. Everything seemed to be going at knock down prices and it was as much as I could do not to keep putting my hand in the air like a demented schoolchild.

But I had to have another fix and managed to buy a second room for £50. This one had a pine wardrobe, pine dressing table and bedside table, a badly stained bed, a lamp and another bin. Another bargain.

I was on a high all day even though my house now looks like a second-hand furniture shop. But at the same time it was sad to see this famous hotel, once the haunt of Noel Coward and Ian Fleming, being dismantled piece by piece by scavengers like me.

All the same, it would have been nice to have been able to take home the view.

Article by Graham Tutthill

THE old hotel had not seen so many people for years.

Some had travelled long distances to take their pickings before demolition men moved in.

The Granville Hotel, at St Margaret's, had welcomed many notable guests in its heyday, Noel Coward and James Bond author Ian Fleming among them. They had stayed in its bedrooms, eaten in its dining room, sipped at its bar and relaxed on its balcony.

But the opulence had long since gone, planning permission has been given for flats to be built on the site and all that remained to be done was to auction off the hotel contents.

Among some of the more interesting items were those not for sale. Crusts, cut from the bread before it went into the toaster, were still in a box on the floor of the kitchen.

There were bottles of Noel's ground nutmeg, white pepper and garlic powder in a basement storeroom.

Magazines had been left on the stools and chairs in the bedrooms and bathrooms as if guests had only just finished reading them and washing was still hanging on a line next to the ironing board.

Empty bottles of Elgin whisky and South African sherry bore the labels of John Lukey and Son, of Dover, Folkestone, Walmer and Hythe.

There was a 1973 calendar on a mantelpiece, and who knows what it was that a member of the hotel staff had been counting so meticulously with rows and columns of pencil marks on the wall?

And no-one, of course, could buy the magnificent view.

The elegant dining room was packed, with many bidders standing outside, by the time lot one, a framed map of Kent, came under the hammer and went for just £6.

A working wrought iron electric clock was bought for £4, as was a typist's swivel chair. Two stools went for £3 each and a notice-board complete with lettering was knocked down for £22.

A large mirror that many guests had gazed in as they passed the bottom of the staircase was sold for £22, an old foot stool went for £60, and the ladies and gents loo signs were bought for £45.

Among some of the more nostalgic items were an old copper post-horn (£75), a ship's brass bell which used to hang in the bar (£45), a plate ice bucket from the bar (£40), a cast-Iron wood burning stove (£170), and a framed photograph showing cross-Channel trenching in 1983/84 with all the engineers' signatures, which went for only £5.

A binnacle compass from a Spanish galleon, made in Madrid, fetched £600.

Whole bedrooms, complete with beds, carpets, Edwardian cabinets, dressing tables,  mirrors and wardrobes, were sold for anything from £20 to £110.

But all eyes were on lot 185, the Second World War U-boat binoculars on their original stand. With "fantastic magnification", they were said to have been used by Fleming to see the time on the clock of Calais Town Hall!

Auctioneer Alien Mitson eventually brought the hammer down at £2,200, the winning bid coming from a mystery buyer on the telephone.

More than 550 lots were sold, including houseplants, pillows, fire extinguishers, wooden trays, wine glasses and the hotel safe - empty, of course!

From the East Kent Mercury 23 June, 2011.

GLAMOUR OF GRANVILLE IS REMEMBERED

THE "Granville Hotel" at St Margaret's, overlooking the sea towards France, was once one of the most popular places to stay in the years between the two world wars.

It is believed that in its heyday its guests included Ian Fleming, Noel Coward, Audrey Hepburn and Princess Margaret.

It was demolished in the 1990s and Granville Flats was built on the site. One of the occupiers is Audrey Kirk, who has organised an outdoor exhibition about the hotel for the Garden Safari at St Margaret's next week.

She said the business opened in 1890 and was enlarged after the First World War, when it enjoyed its heyday for visitors.

In the Second World War it was taken over by the Army, but re-established as a hotel after 1945.

Audrey added: "It began to decline and didn't have its old charisma. But people do remember going there for Sunday lunch and afterwards going out on the balcony for the fantastic view.

"There was a pair of binoculars and on a clear day it was possible to read the time on the clock tower at Calais."

The hotel business eventually closed, the site was auctioned, but after a fire it was knocked down, despite strong opposition. It was demolished in the early 1990s and Audrey moved into the new flats 12 years ago, enjoying the beautiful sea views but not the state of the grounds.

She is now in charge of a team of garden volunteers who have been restoring the lawns and flowerbeds.

Audrey added: "It is a very big garden and the two-day Safari will be the first time it has been opened to the public."

Above shows Audrey Kirk in the restored gardens of the "Granville Hotel."

From the Dover Mercury, 1 September, 2011. 70p

VILLAGERS OBJECT TO PLANS TO DEMOLISH GRANVILLE HOUSE

VILLAGERS at St Margaret's are calling for a stop to plans to demolish a cliff-top house in the conservation area to make way for a large and dominant new home.

The 100-year-old property called Granville House is one of the earliest built as part of the narrow strip of development in Granville Road.

An objection has already been lodged by the National Trust, unhappy with the amount of glazing in the structure, and people at St Margaret's have written protest letters to the district council hoping the planning committee will stop the development.

At Thursday's committee meeting the council leader Cllr Paul Watkins made a plea to councillors to visit the site before deciding whether or not to approve the plans.

He said: "We don't want another example of the former "Granville Hotel," which went round and round for years and years.

"But Granville House Is being neglected and it is an eyesore. It needs to be dealt with."

Cllr Bernard Butcher said the house had been well designed but had been left to go to ruin, which should not have been allowed.

Committee chairman Cllr Frederick Scales said that a site meeting could give councillors the opportunity to take into account the visual impact of the proposals.

Councillors agreed to postpone any decision until they have visited Granville House.

At the same tune they will also look at another house in Granville Road, on the junction with Victoria Avenue, where developers also want to demolish the property and build a new home.

The plot is on the edge of the conservation area and planning chief Mike Dawson said the house was not regarded as a historic heritage asset.

Rachel Humber case-officer, said that the replacement home was "a unique building in a unique location and there was much to commend its design."