Bounce Magazine October 2018
Featuring Echo & Bunnymen, Jazzie B, and regular features!
Featuring Echo & Bunnymen, Jazzie B, and regular features!
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
OCTOBER OCTOBER <strong>2018</strong> | ISSUE <strong>2018</strong> | #72 ISSUE | #72 HISTORY<br />
Hotel de Paris<br />
Cromer...<br />
The hotel sits on top<br />
of the cliffs looking<br />
down on Cromer’s<br />
Victorian pier. By<br />
the end of the 1700s<br />
there were under 700<br />
occupants’ in Cromer<br />
along with three<br />
public houses, the<br />
King’s Head, the New<br />
Inn and the Red Lion.<br />
There was a hotel of which<br />
the name is a distant memory,<br />
but it was owned by Mrs<br />
Sanderson. The Hotel de Paris<br />
was built on land that had at<br />
one stage been a large home<br />
owned by Lord Suffield.<br />
The property and the land<br />
were purchased by Pierre le<br />
Françoise who at a young age<br />
was brought to England by his<br />
aristocratic father Baron del<br />
Barr after escaping the French<br />
Revolution. Hotel de Paris<br />
became a success and Pierre<br />
passed away in 1841 and is<br />
buried in the parish church. His<br />
widow stayed there until 1845<br />
and then it was sold to local<br />
businessmen Henry Jarvis and<br />
both he and his son Alex were<br />
very successful in running the<br />
hotel and built a third floor.<br />
By the time Cromer had a train<br />
station built in 1887 the town<br />
grew in size.<br />
Many of the other hotel’s<br />
closed and Alex Jarvis saw<br />
a great opportunity to build<br />
a new hotel on the site and<br />
employed the services of the<br />
great architect George Skipper.<br />
Skipper chose to incorporate<br />
some of the original style<br />
for the hotel and added the<br />
designs of the properties of<br />
nearby Albert House. Building<br />
was undertaken by J Smith<br />
of Norwich who would later<br />
become the president of the<br />
Norwich Master Builders.<br />
Advised by his doctor in 1892<br />
to stay in Norfolk due to the<br />
pure air, Oscar Wilde rented<br />
a farmhouse in the area<br />
and also stayed at the hotel<br />
where he wrote ‘A Women<br />
of No Importance’, where<br />
he probably came up with<br />
the character name of ‘Lady<br />
Hunstanton’. Lord Alfred<br />
Douglas (Bosie) also joined<br />
Wilde but departed early on<br />
hearing that Mrs Wilde was to<br />
join her husband.<br />
1901 saw Arthur Conan Doyle<br />
recuperating in Cromer from<br />
enteric fever and staying at the<br />
hotel enjoying local stories of<br />
the legend of ‘Black Shuck’.<br />
Doyle moved the location to<br />
Dartmoor and chose the title<br />
‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’.<br />
In archives of the Register for<br />
Aliens for the hotel show the<br />
years 1919 and 1920 where the<br />
register was signed by many<br />
foreign guests even though a<br />
high percentage lived in Britain.<br />
1961 saw the Jarvis family sell<br />
the hotel to Norwich builder<br />
Mr Bush who did much work<br />
on the hotel to bring it up to<br />
date. Mr Bush died in 1972<br />
and the hotel was sold to a<br />
London based company. It has<br />
been a listed Grade II building<br />
since 1977 and is a part of Alfa<br />
Travel’s Leisureplex Group.<br />
During a recent photoshoot,<br />
model Nakita Ramos posed<br />
outside the hotel and a<br />
photo showed a strange glow<br />
by Nakita’s face. Further<br />
developments showed a<br />
strange face looking down<br />
from one of the hotel<br />
windows.<br />
By Michael Chandler - Author, Historian, Broadcaster & Features Writer, Restaurant &<br />
Food critic. Researcher of old buildings and creator of historical and Corporate DVDs.<br />
Contact me @EastAngliaMedia - Mention BOUNCE and receive a 15% discount.<br />
82
Change language