In 1893, Wellesley Terrace, a block
of houses built in 1846, was converted into the Grand
Hotel. The hotel was in a lovely location, at right
angles to the
Sea Front,
overlooking the
Granville
Gardens. The Rifles Monument was erected in 1861
as a memorial to the men of the 60th Rifles killed
in the Indian Mutiny of 1857.
In September 1940 the hotel was destroyed by a bomb.
Newspaper journalists had been staying at the hotel
since the
war
began and some of them were trapped in the wreckage.
One reporter, Guy Murchie of the Chicago Tribune,
telephoned his story to his paper and it appeared
in the next day's edition:
"I held my arms over my head instinctively. Everything
went black. I was fully conscious as the floor fell
away under my feet.... I expected to land on the next
floor, but, to my surprise, I kept falling for many
seconds.... Then I landed.... Gradually the air grew
lighter as the smoke and soot settled. And I could
see that I was tangled in a mass of timbers. The remaining
jagged walls towered upwards some 50 feet, and I was
acutely aware of the possibility of one of them falling
on me. I climbed out of the debris, elated to be alive."
