Adelphi Hotel

Very fine elegant entrance for the guests. They heyday of taking the fresh air at the seaside for two weeks or even an extended break for the lady of the house and children whilst the wage earner worked and came down from London at the weekend

My sister had her wedding reception at the Adelphi in the late 50s

We stayed there for family breaks in the 1960s. I recall the elegance but also a labirynth of passage ways which it was the delight of myself and my brother to explore and which have haunted my dreams ever since. Also at tea time the fairy cakes. A charmed place.

I remember attending Christmas kids parties there in the 1950s; my dad worked at Ore Place

My grandfather (Ernest M Ford) founded the Adelphi hotel in about 1919 when he moved (with his wife & 3 children) down to Sussex from Liverpool. He was Mayor of Hastings no fewer than 3 times in the period of 1935-1940.
I well remember visiting and staying in the hotel on a few occasions in the late 1950s and can echo the earlier comment about the maze of corridors!
In about 1961 the hotel company was wound up, and the hotel then passed into the ownership of the Methodist Church, I believe.

We would go to the Adelphi Hotel in the early 1970s when it was a Methodist holiday hotel. We went there every year for Christmas
...until it closed in the early 1990s...a fabulous place for us as children to play hide and seek with many floors and stairs that led nowhere and cellars that seemed endless....a ballroom that had the most beautiful stain glass circular window in the roof and the original shiny mahogany reception desk and beautiful wrought iron staircase leading down into the reception area...original fireplaces and high ceilings. ..so very many years of happy memories spent in this hotel...with its resident guests..silver tea services. ..and local staff. .remember the large family rooms the right you antiquated

Remember the large family rooms... shared bathrooms and antIque tiny lift. ..(apologies. ...didn't quite get to finish the above post before it posted..rectified now)

My sister Sue worked there when she left school.She was there until it closed.Then she got a job in Bethune Court.Sadly she passed away in 2012.

I believe the Adelphi was the first hotel in the country to have an underground parking garage.

Good afternoon,

I am a journalist at The Times and The Sunday Times.

I am currently working on a short documentary film for our platform about seaside resorts in the UK that have perhaps lost its glory over the last years but are likely to become popular destinations during this year's season.

We are planning to visit St Leonards as part of the project and I was wondering if any of your (elderly) group members would be willing to share their memories of the town or talk about its history?

You can email me on kasia.sobocinska@news.co.uk

I'd appreciate your help,
Kasia

We had our honeymoon at the Adelphi in November 1976

My parents and I went with about 15 church members in the 1970s. I was persuaded to play the piano for a concert . I remember the portion sizes of cheese at dinner were small enough for mice!

A dear man we affectionately called Uncle Gordon took us to the Adelphi Hotel in St Leonards. It was an absolute joy as part of the Methodist Holiday Homes chain. I went to the Adelphi three times, a week each, as well as the Highbury in Weston Super Mare, The Bodlondeb Castle in Llandudno and my favourite, the Park Hotel in Paignton which sadly closed just over 6 years ago and was tragically knocked down for a new building despite being full of period originals in the main rooms. Sad but I guess that's what they call progress!

I went for nostalgia's sake to take a look at the Adelphi some years ago but the hotel had closed and it was being used as housing for immigrants. The frontage still looks the same as it always did and the gardens across the road are as they were so that helped with memories of special times. Sadly, dear Uncle Gordon passed away about 25 years ago now but I will ever treasure my memories of the most influential man on my life without whom I doubt I'd have made adulthood let along be here as a 62 year old now. The Adephi certainly played a major role in the memories I still treasure. The best day of the week was the guests concert on Friday evenings when guests would sign up to sing, dance, do sketches and so forth. I remember learning all 8 stanzas of a wonderful poem called Inexpensive Progress by John Betjemin, all 48 lines of it, which I performed as a recitation one Friday evening when I was about 10 years old. I can still remember every word to this day! Thanks Adelphi, you'll always be special to those of us who had the pleasure of staying there :)

As a student at the catering college in the early 1950s,i worked at the Adelphi many times. We always looked forward to working in the luxurious environment, and had a lot of fun

My mother-in-law, Ida Teresa Dempsey, had her wedding reception there when she married her first husband, Albert John Towner, in 1939. unfortunately Albert died young of TB.

As a 16-year old I did six weeks work there in1977 when it was a Methodist Holiday Home for £18/week plus free board. The manager was one Mr. Thompson who was also a soccer referee.

Yes the basement was quite a labyrinth which is where staff slept, and as others have said Friday night was concert night by all. A Social Secretary organised such things.

Unsurprisingly perhaps the food was austere, and accommodation for guests not much to talk about.

Lots of memories, mostly mixed but on the whole a very positive experience.

I was Social Secretary at The Adelphi in the Summer of 1982. I loved organising the Sunday and Friday night concerts (as a pianist I accompanied a few of the soloists) and remember wheeling out the biscuit trolley and selling the Club biscuits from the stairs. Weekley coach trips to Battle, Winchelsea and Rye and especially the shows at De La Warr Pavilion featuring Norman Wisdom and Lena Zavaroni. She stayed in a caravan in the Warrior Square gardens I think. Had Thursdays aftenoons off and went up onto the hill or just fell asleep on the beach.... really happy times :)
Michael Castle