The impressive
bulk of the old Burlington Hotel was a landmark on Dover’s
Sea Front until the
Second
World War.
Built in the 1860s on the site of a building called
Clarence House, the hotel faced the sea across Clarence
Lawn. Originally called the ‘Clarence’, it soon changed
its name to the ‘Imperial’. The original venture was
a failure and the hotel was closed from 1871 until 1897,
when it was expensively restored under the name ‘Burlington
Hotel’ by the Fredericks Hotel Company.
The hotel closed in the 1920s and was converted into
flats in 1931. Burlington Mansions as they were known
were destroyed in the
Second
World War, with four shells and three bombs scoring
direct hits. The ruins of the building were demolished
in 1949.
