Premier Inn’s newest hotel has been revealed for the very first time as scaffolding around the 100-bed hotel on the seafront at Sandown is removed.
The construction of the brand new hotel and Cookhouse & Pub restaurant on Sandown Esplanade was temporarily halted on 25th March due to coronavirus. The site re-opened by 9th June and now, just 6 weeks later, the scaffolding has come down to reveal a modern and fresh exterior.
The story began back in December 2015 when Island Echo exclusively revealed that the Carlton Hotel in Sandown was to be demolished to make way for a brand new Premier Inn hotel. Planning permission for the scheme was granted in late 2016 and demolition of the Carlton took place in 2017 and early 2018. The building of the new hotel didn’t start until 2019 despite initial hopes that guests would be welcomed by the end of 2017.
Premier Inn Sandown should open in Autumn 2020 with around 65 new jobs expected to be created.
On completion, the new hotel will be Whitbread’s third Premier Inn on the Isle of Wight joining others in Lake and Newport. It will also be the first hotel on the Island – and one of the first in the country – to feature Whitbread’s Cookhouse & Pub restaurant format.
How beautifully designed compared to the Victorian buildings….NOT.
The ONLY charm left to Sandown is the Victorian hotels and larger houses, often used as guest homes, along of course with it’s beautiful coast line and backdrop of Culver, something, that, as yet the planners can’t ruin.
Yet we see more and more of these lovely Victorian building torn down and replaced with something any 9 year old could construct with a box of Lego.
Why designers and planners can’t design and insist on having any new build at least do it’s best to visually fit in with the existing charm of the town in which they are to be built is wrong.
I know that many old buildings are not easy to covert, etc to modern ‘cram in the max occupancy’ and noise, fire proof regs, but they could at the very least then make the outside as attractive as the buildings they destroy to maximise profits.
An ugly eyesore, which like those hideous flats at Luccombe seem to be made so just to ‘stand out’ and be ‘different’, fine if it works. Neither does.
Maybe you are right they should have made it look like the rest of the sea front and left it as a building site.at least someone is trying to do something instead of just moaning all the time.
The cafe awaits doesn’t it? Mr W needs you, all cash.
But the old hotel was not Victorian – it was a derelict 60s nasty looking building. At least whitbread are trying to do something in Sandown – try looking at the rest of Sandown to see how run down it is
Moan, moan ,moan. No wonder there is no progress on the Island. Get a grip nobody wants to live in Victorian England.
The Charm of Sandown, Ha Ha. What Charm ???
What a mismatch of a building, looks like they couldn’t decide on how it looks so just threw it together. There’s nowhere to park in Sandown as it is without another 100 cars looking for somewhere and I bet the council sell them our parking spaces.
Just like many modern shopping centres, no design flair whatsoever, could be anywhere and is everywhere, no doubt a very economical build, grudgingly better than a blank space. (Not sure about that)
For those commenting about the design, perhaps take a look at County Hall, or Ryde front, or most places to be honest… Many towns and villages have lost much to the whims of lazy Architects and a planning office with no idea of suitability and ‘fitting in to its environment’. Whilst we are governed(?) by folk who work in a 70’s slum clearance project I doubt they are in any position to suggest alterations to plans based upon aesthetics.
I’m grateful Whitbread are investing in more good quality affordable modern accomodation on the Island! Well done.
Ugly, dull, characterless dump. And that new building adds nothing to Sandown’s reputation either.
I do wonder how many architect awards this building will win over the next couple of years ??
Maybe … don’t tell me…. NONE ! ! !
No parking for guests, so no guests. Nobody travels to an hotel by public transport anymore, carrying all his or her luggage on and off trains, buses, and boats. To start with: you can’t hold your portable ‘phone and a couple of valises at the same time… And people are anti-social (a good thing just now, I suppose), entitled, and lazy. The planners on this one must be living in some kind of 1930s fantasy world in which all the mill workers go to the seaside for ‘wakes weeks’! Or maybe they know it’s intended as the biggest doss house the south….? Probably housing poor sods with families who can’t afford a house as all the nice, large properties are occupied by middle-aged toffs from London and the not so Homely Counties.
I sincerely hope this is the enabler to commence the revival of Sandown`s fortunes. Where one National chain opens, often another follows, Travelodge? drawing in investment and facilitating a supply chain to develop and thrive, in local shops and suppliers. So i dont care what it looks like, just that it is there, open year round. That beach in front of it is the forgotten jewel.
Reminds me of the brutalist designs of Albert Speer in 1930s Germany.
How sad it has to be in Sandown. Planning departments were once strict about the environmental impact of new building designs – now the money talks. So now we have this outrageously ugly eysore, where we could have had something attractive and an improvement for this part of the coast.