Plans to convert Fort D’Auvergne Hotel into flats

Monday 20 July 2020

Proposals to demolish part of the Fort D’Auvergne Hotel and create new residential accommodation are currently being considered.

The new development, put forward by Fort D’Auvergne Hotel Limited and designed by Waddington Architects, would see part of the southern area of the hotel demolished and rebuilt. The remaining area would be converted into residential accommodation, including 25 flats.

The proposal also entails creating 30 residential parking spaces and 3 visitor spaces, in an area it states has “an extreme shortage”, as well as a “secure store with electric charging facilities for bicycles… with easy access onto the promenade and Eastern Cycle Network.” 

Architecturally, the plans lay out that “the setting of the bay and its Art Deco Lido centrepiece, as well as the Carlton Apartments next door, inform the architecture of the new-build proposals whilst the converted existing elements of the hotel remain familiar in the Victorian seaside streetscape architecture.”

Pictured: Fort D'Auvergne Hotel, which is to be partially demolished and replaced with residential accommodation. 

Supporting documents for the development cite the reasons for the hotel’s conversion as:

• The “context” of the hotel becoming “much more residential” with the construction of The Carlton apartments.
• “Shorter and shorter” visitor seasons making it “impractical to invest in the substantial sums now needed to update the hotel in order to meet ever increasing visitor expectations.”
• “Restrictions on staffing and difficulties with labour availability” adding “further practical pressures to operating this seasonal hotel.”
• “The lack of an on-site car park or easy nearby parking availability.”
• The current buildings being "very dated and not finished to modern standards.”

In regards to the benefits of the new conversion, the designers say that the “architecture of the proposals will introduce an elegant new ‘corner’ to the Promenade and marry ‘old and new’ into a single, integrated and attractive development.”

The proposals are before the Planning Department for approval.