By Rebecca Maer
[Edited 4.3.2025 to include comments from the Eastbourne Society]
A property developer is planning to build 55 luxury apartments on the site of the burnt-down Claremont Hotel opposite Eastbourne pier in a £20 million project.
No planning application has yet been submitted but an outline of the scheme is on Oasis Developers’ website.
It states that it will be “a transformative project” which will be “showcasing a prime investment opportunity in East Sussex”.
Oasis also says that the gross development value of the project is £20 million.
The Eastbourne Society said it welcomed the proposal; the original terrace had been residential units when built in the 1850s as the foundation of the new resort of Eastbourne.
The Eastbourne Reporter approached both Oasis and Eastbourne Borough Council to find out more and when a planning application can be expected.
Fin McCormick, sales and marketing director for Oasis, told the Eastbourne Reporter: “We have some exciting plans for the site but want to make sure the plans are as well thought out and well designed as we can before submitting them.”
We have yet to receive a response from the council.
Oasis Developers, based in Chiswick, west London, lists itself as the contractor using Oasis Developers Eastbourne Ltd on the development as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), which is a separate legal entity created for specific projects.
The website states: “This development promises to blend modern living with Eastbourne’s rich heritage, enhancing the coastal city’s residential offering.”
Other projects listed by Oasis Developers on its website include a development in George Street, near Hastings seafront, of 21 flats and commercial space.
The Claremont Hotel site has been an eyesore with peeling hoarding, scaffolding and colonising weeds since the building was severely damaged in a fire in November 2019 and was subsequently demolished.
What does the Eastbourne Society say?
Richard Crook, architectural adviser to the Eastbourne Society and a trustee, said that a previous application to reinstate the Claremont site to residential use was turned down by the council on the grounds it should remain a hotel.
The council believed at the time that to give permission would set a precedent for other hotels to be converted into residential use.
Mr Crook told the Eastbourne Reporter: “We did not believe at that time this would have been the case as the Claremont and the adjoining Burlington were part of the only Grade ll* Listed hotels in Eastbourne.
“We had pressed for the main front elevation facing Grand Parade and the side elevation facing Cavendish Place to be reinstated exactly as the original design with its columns, capitals, cornices and ironwork.
“Such a reinstatement was bound to be expensive and the project would have to be economically viable, otherwise it would not proceed.
“We were happy therefore that this section of the terrace could be residential units as they were originally and we still feel the same way and are therefore able to support the current outline proposals.”
He said it seemed that the rear elevation facing Elms Avenue has a contemporary feel with large windows and that the society was happy in principle with that “as long as it successfully turns the corner into the reconstructed classical elevation facing Cavendish Place”.
Mr Crook added that he would like to see investigation work to locate a foundation stone which is supposed to exist at street level facing the pier on the east end corner containing the names of Lord Burlington, the architect and builder which could then be reinstated.
What did the council chief executive say last year?
Eastbourne Borough Council chief executive Robert Cottrill told the Eastbourne Society in August last year that a planning application was expected “over the coming weeks”.
He said in a letter to the society: “The enclosure of the site and the introduction of supportive scaffolding were intended as temporary measures and, at the point of installation, I am sure no one imagined they would be in place for a considerable time.
“That said, I am pleased to advise that we are expecting to receive a planning application for redevelopment of the site over the coming weeks…”
Photo: Oast House Archive under Creative Commons Licence via Geograph
Mr Cottrill was responding to a letter from the society, raising its concern about the condition of the site, suggesting that it was a sign of “a complete absence of civic pride”.
The hoarding around it has peeling paint and patched repairs, the pedestrian crossing has long been blocked off and the site has been taken over by buddleia and weeds.
Clearance of the site cost EBC £68,400 in August 2020, according to purchase orders for that year.
The Grand Parade terrace originally comprised 19 houses built for William Cavendish, the second Earl of Burlington, who became the 7th Duke of Devonshire in 1858. Building work started in 1851 to represent the foundation of his new resort of Eastbourne.
The neighbouring Burlington Hotel is now across 13 of the houses.
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