What's Happening With Sandown's Closed And Burnt Out Hotels?

Sandown seafront is beautiful - so what's going on with all the closed hotels?

I have a lot of affection for Sandown.

​Its beach is one of the finest stretches of sand on the Isle of Wight. In fact, Countryfile Magazine went so far as to call it the UK's best beach in 2019.

Sandown has plenty of other things going for it, including a couple of big hotels with great views on the seafront (I'm thinking of Premier Inn and The Trouville). The walk along the seafront towards Shanklin is terrific and there are lots of good local businesses and some nice cafes. It's also got the Isle of Wight's only pier that still operates as a traditional amusement pier, rather than a walkway or somewhere to park the ferry. Read our guide to days out in Sandown and Shanklin for more highlights.

However, it's fair to say that the seafront in Sandown has a big problem with dilapidated and closed hotels. By my count, there are five currently crumbling away, plus a former pub. 

This may explain why Sandown was labelled as a 'Turd Town' by a Youtuber, who commented on the row of closed and burnt out hotels.

I offered a rebuttal that the town still has a lot of offer, but it's hard to deny that those hotels look dire. I often tell people that it's a lovely beach to visit, as long as you don't turn round. Alternatively, you can just stick to the nicer sections of the seafront.

So, what's going on? ​

I thought it would be interesting to do a little digging into plans for some of the empty seafront hotels, by looking at planning applications and news reports. Is there much hope of them re-opening or being rebuilt?

This article is not intended to be a whinge, which points out the problems on the seafront without mentioning the positives. Hopefully it will provide some hope that these problems will be sorted out and that Sandown can get back to its best.

Buckle in for a history of closures, multiple fires and several planning applications.

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​The Esplanade Hotel

One of the bigger hotels in Sandown is the Esplanade Hotel, which has 60 bedrooms. According to news reports, Jimi Hendrix stayed there before his appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, when the hotel was known as the Seagrove Hotel.

The entrance is on the High Street rather than on the seafront itself, but it's a huge great hotel that stretches a long way.

From the seafront it looks a bit like several crumbling buildings, but it's all part of the same building. That does provide some hope that if it were sorted out then it would make a big difference to the look of the whole esplanade.

Here's a timeline:

• We aren't sure exactly when the hotel closed, but it appeared to be open as the Seagrove Hotel when the Google Streetcar drove post in 2011. Outside in 2011, you can see a potted Phoenix Canariensis that is thriving and the door is open.
  
  
• By 2017, it has turned into The Esplanade Hotel and appears to be closed. The potted plant is just about clinging on, but is looking pretty unloved and unwatered. 
  
  
• By 2018, the potted plant has gone brown. I'm going to suggest that it's dead by this point. Rest in peace.
  
  
• The Esplanade Hotel was sold at auction in 2019 for £750,000 according to an Island Echo article. For anyone still interested in the potted plant - a weed has now appeared in the pot.

 

• A couple of years later - in 2021 - the Isle of Wight Observer reported that 'a Section 215 Notice is to be served', which requires owners to 'take steps to tidy up the land, and sometimes buildings when its condition adversely affects the amenity of the area'. The potted weed has been removed altogether, presumably as part of the cleanup.
  
  

• In 2022, an application went in for a 'Proposed conversion of (a) hotel into 14 residential apartments and 6 holiday apartments'. About two years later, in February 2024, this was approved.
  
  
• In January 2025, the owners were told that 'More than 100 improvements must be made' and issued a Section 215 notice, which gives six months for the work to be completed. 
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• Eight months later, in September 2025, there was a fire at the hotel. The BBC reported that 'the fire was on the first, second, and third floors of the building' and was being 'treated as suspicious'. The hotel was covered in scaffolding at the time, so presumably it was being tidied up.

Summary: plans approved to turn it into flats - but the fire damage is a big setback 

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The Ocean Hotel

We've written before about the complicated and contentious recent history of the Ocean Hotel. 

Here's a summary:

• I believe The Ocean Hotel closed some time between May 2017 and August 2018. The Google Streetview car drove past on both of those dates, which gave some useful clues. On the first, the door is open and there's a menu outside. By 2018, the door is closed and a sign has been put in the window. An online article says the Carlauren Group bought it in 2017 and had plans to turn it 'into a luxury care home' or a 'serviced apartment hotel' according to the planning document (P/00790/16). Another report says it was sold to the Care Home Group Limited for about £2.7m.
  
  
• In 2019, the Carlauren Group went into administration.
  
  
• In 2020, the BBC covered details of an alleged scam, whilst an article from Hampshire Live explains that the situation is complicated because there are more than 50 leaseholders who had invested significant sums of money.
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• In 2021, there was a major fire that destroyed much of the roof. The same year saw arguments over squatters and a change of ownership to Phoenix Commercial Property Development Limited. After the fire, the owners announced that it wouldn't be returning as a hotel.
  
  
• In 2022, the council issue an enforcement notice that the site needs to be tidied up. There was then a legal back and forth with appeals about what needed to be done, and by what date. 
  
  
• In 2023, there was more legal back and forth about cleaning up the site. Reading through the detail is like wading through treacle but the key detail comes at the end of a County Press article from November 2023, which says 'the countdown to clean up the building has now resumed, and PCPD has approximately five months to carry out the work.'
  
  
• In 2024, there were reports of 'anti social behaviour' at the Ocean Hotel, with young people being 'dispersed'. During August, there were three fires at the hotel. In October, the Isle of Wight Council used emergency powers to surround the hotel with fences after 'numerous deliberate fires and break-ins'.
  
  
• In 2025, part of the hotel was sold for about £350,000, whilst its car park was sold for about £260,000. From what I can tell, the sections that were sold are either side of the main hotel so wouldn't have a big impact on the large and prominent section that you notice from the road. One section is near the outdoor swimming pool whilst the other is to the right if you are looking at it from the seafront.
  
  
• In 2026, the Isle of Wight Council bought a small section of land outside the front of the hotel. I'm not quite clear what will happen with this, but the Mayor was quoted as saying "the authority 'could not sit by' and watch another key piece of the town fall into permanent stagnation". There's a positive sounding section in the article that says 'the council says it will now begin a programme of working party meetings and public engagement sessions to explore both long‑term redevelopment and short‑term “meanwhile uses” to improve the appearance of the area."

Summary: ongoing efforts to tidy it up but the complex legal and ownership situation seems to be slowing things down

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Kings House Bar

The Kings House Bar is not a hotel, but it was also owned by the Carlauren group and is another empty building on Sandown seafront. In 2025, a planning application to turn it into a three storey house was approved. Two years earlier, it had been bought at auction for about £350,000.

Summary: plans for a house approved but not yet built

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We'll now move a little bit along onto Culver Parade, where there are two fire-damaged adjacent hotels that are looking pretty sorry for themselves.

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Tarvic 2 Hotels

​This bizarrely named hotel at 13 - 15 Culver Parade closed some time between 2009 and 2016. I realise that's a rather wide range, but that is when it was photographed by the Google Streetcar. It appears open in 2009 and closed by 2016.

I'm not sure why it is referred to as 'Hotels' rather than 'Hotel' but I suppose it makes about as much sense as the hotel next door being named after a ski resort in Switzerland. Perhaps it was two hotels that were merged together.

The Land Registry calls it 'Balconies Hotel'.

I believe Tarvic 2 Hotels has 50 bedrooms.

• In 2018, Tarvic 2 Hotels was damaged by a fire (yes, another one). The County Press reported that a woman in her 60s was accused of flicking a cigarette butt from a balcony onto a pile of rubbish and was charged with arson - but the case was dropped due to a lack of evidence. 
• In 2024, an application went in to build 10 flats on the site of the Tarvic 2 Hotel, but it was refused in February 2025 (24/01851/FUL). The Isle of Wight Council gave a number of reasons for turning it down, including it being 'visually intrusive' and it leading to a loss in hotel accommodation. You can find the full report on the planning website.

Summary: plan for flats turned down

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St Moritz Hotel

​Next door to Tarvic 2 Hotels is the St Moritz Hotel at 9-11 Culver Parade.

I've not had much luck finding out what's going on with this one. I couldn't find any planning applications for it and it's not appeared on recent news reports.

It was open in August 2018 (on Google Streetview) but had closed by March 2021. It caught fire in August 2018, along with its neighbour - Tarvic 2 Hotels.

My best guess is that the St Moritz didn't re-open after the fire. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

St Moritz Hotel gets a brief mention on the website for Hotel Maria, which is next door. On their site it says 'Our story here began with the opening of the St. Moritz Hotel in 1998, followed by Hotel Maria in 2004' - but it doesn't expand on whether they still own it. We tried to figure out if it was still owned by the same people by looking at Land Registry records, but we reached a dead end.

Summary: we don't know what's happening with this one

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The Grand Hotel

Yaverland isn't really the same place as Sandown, but the 1930s Grand Hotel next to Wildheart Animal Sanctuary is worth a mention.

It's been closed for a long time and it adds to the seafront dilapidation issues as it's in such a prominent position. It's also a rather lovely design, which makes it all the sadder that it is not in use.

I've struggled to find out when the Grand Hotel was last open.

There are plenty of cars outside in 2009 and 2011 when the Google Street car drove past but by 2016 it is boarded up.
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Curiously, a video on Youtube by Abandoned Isle of Wight shows a selection of CD covers that have been left in the hotel, in one of those massive CD folders that everyone had (there are four in my garage).

Most of the CDs are from the 1990s (Chemical Brothers, Black Grape, Cypress Hill) but the most recent one I can see in the stack is from 2001 (by Andrew WK, if you're interested).

This raises several questions. Did the hotel actually close in the early 2000s? Or did someone work there who had a huge interest in 90s indie music, but not so much that they actually remembered to take their collection with them when they left?

I do hope you appreciate this level of detective work, which finally brings together two of my biggest enthusiasms - the Isle of Wight and indie rock music from the late 90s and early 2000s.
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So, what's happening with the Grand Hotel?

• In 2012, an application to demolish the hotel and replace it with another one was refused (application P/01646/12). There was a campaign at the time to stop the demolition.
• In 2014, another application to demolish the hotel and replace it with a 30 bedroom hotel went in and was approved (P/00928/14). This appears to be an amended version of the 2012 application. As you'll gather, the plans didn't happen despite being approved.
• In 2021, there was a fire at The Grand. Reports suggest this wasn't a big fire.
• In January 2022, there was a larger fire at the Grand Hotel. In the same year, an application went in for an 'external refurbishment/restoration'. The BBC reported this as plans to 'restore the building to its 1938 glory' but also said that 'There is no mention of any plans to reopen the hotel'. In the same year, the County Press reports some work to the property, including new lettering and scaffolding. However, this application was later withdrawn.
• Over the next couple of years there was some improvement to the external appearance of the Grand Hotel, despite that application being withdrawn. If you use the time jump feature on Google Streetview, you'll see that there's a notable upgrade from 2021 to 2024.

Summary: some external improvement but no news on long term plans

This image above shows the Grand Hotel in 2021.

By 2024, the windows had been restored and the lettering had been removed.

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Is there hope for SAndown's Closed Hotels?

There's a real mixed bag here but I don't see much chance of any of these properties re-opening as hotels any time soon. 

The Esplanade and Tarvic 2 Hotels both looked like they would become flats, but neither of those plans have materialised yet. The Kings House Bar also looks like it will become residential. I'll update next time I'm cycling past if I see any building work!

The Grand Hotel looked like it might return as a hotel back in 2014, but it never happened and more recent plans to smarten it up didn't mention re-opening (and were later withdrawn anyway).

There's scant information on the St Moritz Hotel, but hopefully someone can help us fill in the gaps.

The Ocean Hotel looks beyond repair and has ended up in an unfortunate situation with multiple leaseholders and legal arguments. This one seems the trickiest to resolve, which is a shame as it's also something of a flagship eyesore. 

The frequent stream of fires affecting the hotels has certainly not helped. Whoever is responsible should be forced to ride a bicycle without a saddle up and down the seafront for the rest of their lives.

What offers hope is that there is clearly a desire to sort these problems out. There have been multiple interventions from the local council, as well as protests from local residents and plenty of news reports from local journalists. 

Hopefully in a few years' time, I will be able to visit Sandown and enjoy the view in both directions whilst I'm standing on the beach in my pants.

Until then, please don't feel that you shouldn't visit Sandown - the sand is still lovely, the beach is rated as 'good' for water quality by the Environment Agency and there are some terrific events - such as the annual Regatta and Carnival.