In the skip:
• Home
Buildings featured on these pages:
• Art Deco Bookshop
• Bishopstone Railway Station, Seaford
• De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea
• Embassy Court, Brighton
• Hoover Factory, Perivale
• Ocean Hotel, Saltdean, Brighton
• Saltdean Lido, Brighton
• Shoreham Airport, Brighton
Related links:
• The Cinema Theatre Association
• The Granada Cinema Hove Website
• The Marine Gate Flats, Brighton
• Mawgrim's Odeon Cavalcade
• The Twentieth Century Society
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Along with the Lido to the south, the Ocean Hotel (sometimes known as the Grand Ocean Hotel) is another fine example of thirties seaside architecture in the south coast village of Saltdean. Indeed, it was constructed by the delvelopers reponsible for the Lido and much of the actual village, the saltdean Estate Company, formed by speculator Charles Neville in 1924.
The Ocean Hotel was acquired by Butlins in 1953, and stayed in their ownership until Rank Leisure, the owner of Butlins, put all of the Butlins hotels up for sale in 1998. They went to the Grand Hotel Group.
There is so little demand for accomodation in the hotel now, that plans are being made to house asylum seekers there, which is currently rousing local protest. Unfortunately, the front view from the hotel (which faces north-east) was blighted in the 1950s when the countryside opposite it was redeveloped for housing. However, the hotel appears to be in good condition, retaining many original features, including glass-brick columns flanking the main entrance, and the mouldings on the ceiling of the foyer. Due to its slightly off the beaten track location, it is not somewhere you would find without looking for it, but it is a beauiful building.
The sun shining over the hotel... 
...and setting.
Looking south east over the facade.
Looking west, showing the curve of the facade.
Inside the foyer, showing the original ceiling mouldings.