Clifton Hotel, Scarborough

Summary

A large, stucco-fronted hotel opened in 1864, of classical design by Scarborough architects John and David Petch with early 1890s multi-facetted tower where Wilfred Owen wrote war poetry whilst billeted there in the First World War.

Reasons for Designation

The Clifton Hotel, 1864 with later additions and alterations, by John and David Petch, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* as a good representative example of a classical, stucco-fronted Victorian seaside hotel with principal elevations of rhythmic canted-bay windows, a late-C19 multi-facetted corner tower where Wilfred Owen’s rooms were situated, and good-quality historic interior.

Historic interest:
* for its close association with Wilfred Owen (1893-1918), the pre-eminent poet of the First World War, who was billeted here after being treated for shellshock. Owen was in charge of running the hotel, which was operating as an officers’ mess, and it is here that he wrote or revised a number of his most noted war poems;
* the largely unaltered hotel is one of two known buildings in England where Owen specifically wrote his war poetry and the only one to remain much as he would have recognised.

History

The Clifton Hotel, originally the Alexandra Hotel, Queen’s Parade, Scarborough, was constructed 1863 and 1864, designed by John and David Petch, one of the principal local architects’ practices of the town. The hotel was promoted as a major establishment, with nearly 100 rooms, all offering sea views and close proximity to the beach and cricket ground.

Ownership changed several times in the late 19th century, with a number of alterations, principally in the early 1890s with the south extension of the east range, including corner tower, providing a writing room, ladies’ drawing room on the first floor, and extra bedrooms. In 1896 the hotel was renamed the Clarence Garden Hotel to exploit a connection with the newly opened Clarence Gardens nearby. Further architectural modifications were made in 1900 under James Petch, including a new entrance and reception.

During the First World War the hotel frequently served as accommodation for officers, most notably 2nd Lt Wilfred Owen of the 5th (Reserve) Battalion of The Manchester Regiment, at the time responsible for the coastal infantry defences and training recruits. He was stationed there in 1917 while convalescing. Owen was made secretary of the mess and managed the hotel's operations, whilst also writing and revising war poetry. After the First World War, the hotel resumed commercial operations, undergoing further enhancements including extension of the seafront lounge in 1923 and 1928. In 1934 it was renamed the Clifton Hotel and continued to modernise, remodelling the attic level, adding new amenities and adapting to the rise of motor tourism.

During the Second World War, the Clifton Hotel housed the Royal Naval School of Music and underwent structural changes to respond to war conditions, including the construction of air raid shelters and the removal of iron railings for salvage.

Post-war, the hotel continued to evolve, with the creation of a garden tea court, new service rooms, and a function room for events. There have been no major changes since 1970.

Wilfred Owen MC, born in 1893, enlisted in the Artists’ Rifles in 1915 and was commissioned into the Manchester Regiment in 1916. He saw active service in France, where he was wounded and diagnosed with neurasthenia (shellshock), leading to his recuperation at Craiglockhart War Hospital, Scotland. Encouraged by Seigfried Sassoon, whom he met there, Owen chanelled memories of battle to produce some of his most significant war poetry during this period. Owen was sent to Scarborough in late 1917, where he managed the mess for officers billeted at the Clarence Gardens Hotel. He was provided with a ‘good room’ for himself (now Room 493), as well as an office (now Room 367), both in the corner tower with sweeping views over the North Sands and down to Scarborough Castle. In a letter to his mother he commented that "I sit in the middle of my five-windowed turret and look down upon the sea". When the wind blew, the fireplace smoked badly, providing, he said, "the right atmosphere" for writing war poetry. Poems that Owen continued to write or revise here included ‘Conscious’, ‘A Terre’, 'A Tear Song', 'Miners', and 'Strange Meeting'. 'Miners' was his first commercially published poem. He returned to the Western Front and was killed in action on 4 November 1918, just days before the armistice. A local civic society blue plaque commemorates Wilfred Owen’s period of residence at the hotel.

Details

Hotel, 1863-1864, designed by Scarborough architects John and David Petch, extended in the later C19, with some C20, and C21 alterations. The single-storey service rooms in the re-entrant angle to the rear between the dining room and kitchens, the function room and link corridor, and the detached store and garage situated to the rear of the hotel are not of special interest.

MATERIALS: brick construction, rendered and colour washed, painted ashlar dressings, slate roofs.

PLAN: Two ranges, north and east, in an L plan with dining room projecting west of the south end of the east range.

EXTERIOR: the east and north ranges are four storeys in plain Victorian classical style with c20 attic stage (in place of the original attic dormers). Each front is of nine bays and each has canted bay windows in stacks alternating with flat-fronted bbays. There is a continuous moulded string course above ground floor. Each of the canted bays follows a uniform pattern at each stage of piers between windows with moulded capitals, and plain entablatures. First and second floor canted bays have in addition recessed aprons below the windows and the canted bays of the top storey have capitals enriched with acanthus leaves. The windows of the flat bays are vertically linked and have simplified classical frames, those at second floor with canopies projecting on consoles and the top storey with lugged frame and keystone. The windows are sashes with plate glass and predominantly four panes (two-over-two) or two panes (one-over-one) in the narrow windows of the canted bays. The west gable of the north range is plain, with a moulded verge and two chimney stacks.

The 1890s south extension of the east range has a five-storey tower at its south-east corner with five windows at each stage in style following that of the canted bays of the earlier work and at attic stage with slated five-sided roof with finial. The south gable abutted by the tower is in the form of a pediment above a thivck eaves cornice with arched window. The windows of this wall follow the pattern of the flat bays of the principal elevations and the middle bay at first floor is a canted bay with balustrade, again in a stylematching the rest of the hotel. This bay originally continued to ground floor but now at this level is the entrance porch added in 1900, which is in a Tudor gothic style with angle buttresses, stepped parapet and ogee moulding above half-glazed double doors, and a two-light fanlight. It has a c20 addition on its west side. A tiled semicircular step has the hotel’s name, presumably 1930s.

A former north entrance has a moulded frame with corner lugs and flared keystone. This has a three-sided canopy on Doric columns, added in 1933. At the back the east and north ranges have a variety of sash and casement windows and a canted bay for the lower stage of the staircase in the east range.

Projecting from the rear of the east range is the single-storey dining room with a gabled roof and a mono-pitch south aisle. It has a brick chimney stack, lean-to extension, and modern casement windows.

Abutting the west gable of the north range is a former WC block with Doric pilasters and a moulded cornice.

INTERIOR: on the ground floor of the east range are the writing room (in the corner tower), lounges, and former smoke room and sitting lounge (now the Clifton Bar). From the vestibule in the 1890s extension an open arch leads to a lounge area divided on each side by timber arcades in classical style with slim piers and mix of four-centred and basket arched openings with keystones. The lower flights of the staircase rise behind similar arched openings with balustrade at the quarter landing. The lounges and writing room have moulded plaster cornices, dado rails, skirting boards, and painted Georgian-style fireplaces set in projecting chimney breasts. The dados of the writing room, two lounges and the bar are decorated with applied mouldings that form panelling. The ground-floor corridor has similar panelling both below and above the dado. North of the large lounge and on the east side of the main corridor an enclosed lounge is formed by glazed screens and doors that have glazing bars forming diamond-pattern lights to the upper panels. Public rooms in the north range (former lounge, smoke room, and a tap room) are similarly decorated.

The main staircase, which rises through the building with a continuous timber handrail, has stained-glass windows in an Arts and crafts style. T dog-leg staircase with turned balusters in the north range also has some leaded stained glass.

The dining room is a large, rectangular space with exposed trusses supported by slender shafts on corbels. Stage at the west end in the addition of 1952 (now a bar) and aisle on the south side added in 1935 as the conservatory. Double doors lead to service areas and kitchens.

The upper floors contain a mix of bedrooms. Most retain skirting boards, dado rails, picture rails and moulded plaster cornices, and have block chimney breasts, including Room 367 (Wilfred Owen’s office). All bay windows have architraves and panelled aprons. The upper floor of the corner tower is Room 493 (Wilfred Owen’s bedroom). It has a blocked chimney breast in the north wall and deep, rendered structural beams that project from the ceiling.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the north range is fronted by a low, painted brick wall capped by brick soldier coping laid on two courses of tiles, with shouldered panels that rise up at each end to posts with a similar construction. The rear service yard entrance is also partially screened by a length of painted brick wall with a recessed rendered panel and canted brick copings crowned by a semi-circular ridge.

This list entry was subjected to a Minor Amendment on 20 January 2026 to amend details in the description

Sources

Books and journals
Owen, Harold, Bell, John, Wilfred Owen Collected Letters, (1967)

Websites
Scarborough's Glorious Gardens, accessed 28 October 2024 from https://storiesfromscarborough.wordpress.com/tag/harry-w-smith/
The Scarborough News - 4 September 2024 - The incredible history of Scarborough's Clifton Hotel where Wilfred Owen wrote some of his poems, accessed 28 October 2024 from https://www.thescarboroughnews.co.uk/news/people/the-incredible-history-of-scarboroughs-clifton-hotel-where-wilfred-owen-wrote-some-of-his-poems-4768030
The Waste that Helped Win the War, article from Britain at War, Austin Ruddy, 31 December 2020, accessed 07 March 2025 from https://www.keymilitary.com/article/waste-helped-win-war

Other
Plan and sections of proposed additions, Clarence Hotel, 1864, North Yorkshire County Records Office, Plan No. 3369
Additions and Alterations, Clarence Hotel, 1892-1911, North Yorkshire County Records Office, Plans 93, 1435, and 2923
Porch, Clarence Hotel, 1911, North Yorkshire County Records Office, Plan 1521
Raising roof, porch, and alterations, Clifton Hotel, 1933-1934, North Yorkshire County Records Office, Plan 5866
Alterations, retention of garage, raising roof, toilets in tea court, Clifton Hotel, 1949-1950, North Yorkshire County Records Office, plan 5866
The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 1864, Friday August 5th, Page 2, Column 5
Scarborough Evening News, 1889, Tuesday April 19th, Page 2
The Bradford Daily Telegraph, 1897 Friday, September 10th, Page 3, Column 1
The People's Journal, 1906, Saturday February 3rd, Page 6, Column 4
Yorkshire Evening Post, 1931, Thursday July 30th, Page 8, Column 4

End of official list entry

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