The Lord Warden Hotel in the 1930s.
The Lord Warden Hotel was opened by the South
Eastern Railway in September 1853. It was built
next door to the Town
Station , to which it was connected by a glazed
walkway at first floor level. It was ideally placed
for the cross channel traveller right by the Admiralty
Pier, where the cross-Channel steamers berthed.
The hotel attracted a clientele from
the rich and famous en route to and from the Continent.
Charles Dickens
was a guest as was William Makepeace Thackeray. In
March 1871 the deposed Emperor Napoleon III of France
arrived to be reunited with his wife Eugenie here.
Between the First
and Second World
Wars the hotel still attracted a well-heeled travelling
clientele. The hotel’s celebrated ballroom was much
used by local organisations for annual dinners, dances
and other events.
During the Second
World War it was taken over by the Royal Navy
and known as HMS Wasp. It was the headquarters for
the Coastal Force, made up of motor torpedo boats,
motor gun boats and air-sea rescue craft. This was
where the crews were billeted and the signals section,
plotting rooms and offices were located. The craft
themselves were based in the Ferry Dock and the Camber
area of the Harbour.
After the war the building was taken
over as offices by the Southern Region of British
Rail and renamed Southern House. It was later used
by HM Customs and Excise before being purchased for
use as offices by the shipping line, Stena. In 1999
it was bought by the Dover Harbour Board and refurbished
for use by freight agents in conjunction with new
Customs clearance facilities being built nearby. The
building was also renamed Lord Warden House at the
same time.
