Cliffemount Hotel demolition gets underway

The demolition of Cliffemount Hotel, a renowned hotel in Runswick Bay, is now underway, with the process expected to take eight weeks altogether. Cliffemount Hotel, which was once a popular destination for tourists, closed in 2022 and was sold to a Yorkshire family who have strong links to Runswick Bay. In 2023, it was announced that the Fojt family intended to demolish the old hotel and rebuild Cliffemount as a new 20 sea-view room hotel, pub and restaurant. Focusing on sustainability, the family said it intends to follow “strict” design and building regulations set by The Passivhaus Trust whilst rebuilding the hotel. If successful, the new Cliffemount would be the first hotel in the UK to achieve Passivhaus accreditation. For this accreditation to be achievable, the existing building must be completely stripped away, thus requiring the demolition. Melissa Tomlinson, managing director, said: “It’s a huge milestone for us to be able to announce that demolition is commencing. It’s taken a lot of time and effort from all involved parties to make it happen because it’s such a huge process. “The scale of the project as a whole meant it was always going to take a while for work to begin, but it has taken a little longer than expected. This is largely because we’ve never been willing to compromise on quality. We’ve always said we would consider the community in everything we do. We’ve stayed true to that to date and plan on continuing to do so.” She added: “We want to thank everyone for their continued support and their patience whilst we made the necessary arrangements. We’ve received such lovely comments and well wishes from local residents, and the support really means a lot to us, especially considering there will inevitably be a little disruption throughout our project.” In a letter of intent sent to local residents, Paul Thackray, site manager at Stainforth Construction said: “We aim to conduct the works with the minimum amount of disruption to the local community and environment. “Unfortunately, there will inevitably be some element of disruption, mainly due to the delivery of construction machinery. Anyone with any questions or concerns can reach out to our team directly and we will be happy to comment.” The entire process, which is being led by Stainforth Construction, has been given an expected completion date of 11 October. No date has been announced for work to begin on building the new Cliffemount, however.