Investment is desperately needed to save this important city centre building currently languishing in the hands of the Queen’s Crown Estate Solicitors.
The Victorian Society today reveals that the Central Plaza Hotel, Carlisle is one of 2015’s Top Ten Most Endangered Victorian and Edwardian Buildings in England and Wales. Investment is desperately needed to save this important city centre building currently languishing in the hands of the Queen’s Crown Estate Solicitors.
Griff Rhys Jones, The Victorian Society Vice President, launching the Top Ten, said “These are buildings that need help, and we need your help.” Inclusion in the Society’s Top Ten often leads to national exposure and new interest in the buildings selected which can help save them.
Can a building survive without an owner? The handsome former Great Central Hotel is constructed from contrasting sandstones with stone panels decorated with the city arms, the date and scenes from Aesop’s Fables.
Today little is visible as the building is shrouded by scaffolding. The hotel closed in 2004 and the company that bought it ceased to exist shortly afterwards. The ancient law of escheat meant that it fell into the hands of the Queen’s Crown Estate solicitors, who, though disinclined to manage or market the building, are open to a sale. The Council has spent £77,000 on the building in recent years but has been unable to find a developer willing to take it on. New sources of funding are desperately needed to restore this important city-centre building.
Director of the The Victorian Society, Christopher Costelloe, said: ‘We’re grateful to everyone who nominated the Central Plaza Hotel, Carlisle. Like all the buildings included in this year’s Top Ten, it is a listed building meaning that the Government has recognised its national importance. The Council are to be commended for spending money on a building which the Crown Estate Solicitor will not market. I urge the public to share the Top Ten, and Griff’s message, to help raise awareness of the Central Plaza Hotel and help it to find the investment it so desperately needs.’
Pictures of the Central Plaza Hotel, Carlisle can be found here.