Grand Hotel, Eastbourne

On 13 May 1874 the Eastbourne Gazette announced that a local resident William Earp was proposing to build a hotel with a 400-foot frontage at a cost of £50,000.

The result was the Grand Hotel, designed by local architect Robert Knott Blessley and constructed in 1875.

Eastbourne was also where Frank Bridge completed work on his suite The Sea in 1911.

[5] During the Second World War, Eastbourne was easy prey to air raids and the hotel eventually closed down and became a military headquarters.

The fire started when workmen had been repainting, using blow torches to strip off old paint.