The Westcliff's Origins

Designed by Sir Herbert Baker and built for Sir William and Lady Dalrymple in 1908, it was declared a national monument in 1979 and now houses the offices of the Order of St  John. 

Sir William, a mining magnate, and his wife Isobel, an actress, were known for entertaining on a grand scale and for their celebrity guests - Princess Alice of Athlone was among those who stayed at Glenshiel.  It was only in 1922, the year of the infamous Miners’ Strikes, that development in Westcliff began in earnest.  This was after an application to build “a single flat” in the suburb was approved by an “inattentive clerk”. 

E M Macphail writes in "The Story of Westcliff" that an attractive gabled apartment building was  built.   Christened Westcliff Flats, it was later to be renamed Murray Gordon Mansions and occupied the site where the The Westcliff Hotel now stands.

Murray Gordon Mansions was eventually left in trust as an old age home.  However the trust encountered financial difficulties and the property suffered from neglect.  A suggestion that the building be restored came too late and it was demolished in 1975.

Early in 1993 developers acquired the site with the intention of building eight upmarket cluster homes for the younger set.  Murmurs began to rumble through the suburb, with the schism between old money and new threatening to disrupt the genteel nature of this privileged habitat.

The developer envisioned  “something palatial in Tuscan terracotta.”  The end result was impressive, but the timing poor.  The market was uncertain and the buildings stood empty for two years before being acquired by The Orient-Express Group.  (Although, perhaps as legend has it, the embittered ex-resident of the old age home who had cast a curse upon the site –“No one will ever live here!” – was responsible).

Curse or no curse, the destiny of the site was to change.  It became a hotel in the tradition of the grand hotels of the world and, in fact, no-one does live there …