Hotel on Blackpool Promenade earmarked for demolition with new venue to be built on the site

The Fragrance Group has applied for council permission to demolish a block of buildings including the St Chad’s Hotel, the Lyric Hotel, Regency Apartments and the Seaside Fish and Chip Shop.

A planning application is expected to be submitted later this year to build a new 157-room hotel on the same footprint as the current properties.

The site, between the Promenade, Woodfield Street, St Chad’s Road and Bolton Street, has been fenced off for some time with the hotels closed.

If permission is granted, demolition is expected to begin in May in order to minimise disruption on the Prom.

The Fragrance Group, which also owns The Imperial Hotel in North Shore, wants to redevelop the site with “a new, high quality, hotel” and has already held talks with town hall planners about its proposals.

A planning brief accompanying the application says simply refurbishing the existing buildings is a non-starter due to their poor state, and the fact the hotels are a conglomeration of different properties.

It says: “The buildings are in a poor state of repair both structurally and cosmetically and, now vacant, are increasingly targeted by vandals and anti social behaviour detracting from the character and appearance of the Promenade.”

The building occupied by the St Chad’s Hotel dates back to 1893 with the remainder of the buildings being added in stages since around 1912.

This has led to various changes in level between the different properties, inadequate lifts and staircases, narrow corridors and window positions which limit room sizes with “no coherency to the internal layout.”

Documents add: “Instead, it is intended that following demolition the buildings be replaced by a single, high quality hotel which would occupy broadly the same footprint as the existing buildings.

“The new hotel would provide circa 157 guest bedrooms with a range of ancillary facilities including lobby, bar/restaurant and dining roomswhich can also be used to host entertainment evenings.”

Among other projects The Fragrance Group has recently completed is the redevelopment of the Municipal Buildings in Liverpool city centre into a four star hotel.