Bid to deregister Groudle Glen Hotel
“The owner of the Groudle Glen Hotel is seeking to have the building removed from the Protected Buildings Register, only weeks after it was added.
The building was registered in April by the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture which claimed it had ’special architectural or historic interest’.
The original reasoning behind the registering of the building was that it was designed by architect Baillie Scott, apparently on the orders of Richard Maltby Broadbent, who paid for the Groudle Glen to be built and had previously commissioned Scott to design his house Ivydene at Little Switzerland in Douglas.
However, in seeking to deregister the building, the owner Anna Kawalek has sought to cast doubt on those claims saying there is ’no documentary evidence to substantiate this connection’.
Mrs Kawalek added: ’The basis of registration has now shifted to the building being one of "historic interest" due to its age and rarity of its relationship and association with the developing tourist industry in the 19th century.’
In her application (19/00510/CON) to have the building deregistered, Mrs Kawalek said the building was ’redundant’ because its former uses as a pub, hotel and restaurant ’have become nonviable’.
She added: ’The building has been on the market for sale for five years, without the slightest hint of interest. Interest in visiting the building may have "peaked" in the late 1970s, however the changes in the drink driving laws sounded a death knell for local interest in visiting the building and this interest has never recovered.’
Mrs Kawalek said due to what she called ’cruel disfigurements’ during the building’s lifetime, both inside and out, it is ’difficult to see that anything of the original remains in a sufficiently good condition to warrant preserving it’.
She also said that the costs of any repairs would likely be a ’seven-figure sum’.
Summarising, Mrs Kawalek said the building has become a ’white elephant’ and as a result of drainage covenants attached to the building, previous potential buyers all pulled out of any deal.
She added: ’If the building remains on the register, the chances of finding a buyer will be reduced to nil and this death sentence for the building can result only in further decay to it and blighting of the surrounding area.'
Isle of Man Newspapers
The Manx Electric Railway Society will be objecting to the
proposal to de-register this historic and iconic building.
Any parties who object to the proposal to de-register the Groudle Hotel are asked to make their feelings known by writing to the Planning and Building Control Division (address below), quoting Planning Application No. 19/00510/CON and stating their reasons for objecting to the application.
Planning and Building Control Division
First Floor
Murray House
Mount Havelock
Douglas
Isle of Man IM1 2SF
The application to have the Groudle Hotel de-registered can be viewed HERE.
The closing date for objections is the 7th June 2019.