Queen's Hotel

Built in 1846 on the site of the Dolphin Inn

Reproduced with permission from the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder, 1990

Please note that this text is an extract from a reference work written in 1990.  As a result, some of the content may not reflect recent research, changes and events.

The Queen's was built in 1846 on the site of the Dolphin Inn, the middle building of a row of five in Grand Junction Road; this original section still has an Ionic doorway facing the sea. The now familiar western facade, however, originally belonged to Markwell's Hotel which was erected in 1870 and absorbed by the Queen's in 1908. Part of the northern facade in King's Road is listed as being of special architectural interest. Designed by A.H.Wilds in about 1825, this section is adorned with pilasters, ammonite capitals, and four-storey bows. The Queen's Hotel can still be seen to be composed of several separate buildings of differing styles and dates.

Alterations were made to the hotel in 1978-9, including the addition of the Sake Dene Cocktail Bar, named after Sake Dene Mahomed who once ran the country's first turkish bath on the site of Markwell's Hotel. In 1983 however, the hotel was closed. It was then acquired by Cheffik Ltd, and in August 1986 the hotel, which now occupies the whole block, was reopened following a major improvement programme at a cost of £8 million. The alterations included the distinctive south-eastern corner, and the addition of a Turkish bath, appropriate to the site of Mahomed's Baths.

Any numerical cross-references in the text above refer to resources in the Sources and Bibliography section of the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder.