Project update: Ocean Hotel on the Promenade

£1.2m '˜A B&B' to help fund the Arts one step closer to opening
The former Ocean Hotel on the Promenade in BlackpoolThe former Ocean Hotel on the Promenade in Blackpool
The former Ocean Hotel on the Promenade in Blackpool

What’s happening?

Ambitious plans to transform the front of a disused Blackpool hotel, where people will be able to stay to support the Arts, have been lodged with town planners.

The move marks a concrete step forward for LeftCoast, which raised the cash needed for the project, at the former 22-bed Ocean Hotel on the Promenade close to the Metropole hotel.

Plans to install a glass box to show off artPlans to install a glass box to show off art
Plans to install a glass box to show off art
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Dubbed ‘A B&B’, the community interest company said it would pump all profits into ‘local employment, a creative training and development programme, and supporting the creative economy of Blackpool’.

What’s the latest?

Planners have been asked to agree to a remodel of the hotel’s front entrance apron to include a plinth and large glass box, which will ‘house a rolling stock of sculpture’.

The outside walls, which have been ‘subject to the harsh climate for a number of years and, as such, have suffered from a certain amount of decay’, will have a new silicone-based render in grey, along with matching window frames, if planning permission is given.

‘Low level soft landscaping’ would also ‘complement the overall appearance of the striking hotel facade’, papers added.

And what’s happened previously?

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The hotel was bought by Blackpool Council for £203,000 in 2016, and will be leased back to A B&B. Separate planning permission, for a rear extension with terrace above, replacement windows, and new doors following the demolition of an existing extension, has been already been granted.

What will it mean?

The B&B will provide a ‘space for multiple artists to be commissioned and have their work re-imagined in the context of a functioning seafront bed and breakfast’, papers said. “This project will refurbish, repurpose, and re-invigorate a prime example which has fallen out of use as a new creative business model.”

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