A letter I would urge you to read
Last week Philip Evans wrote in the View From Lyme Regis about the most loved buildings in the town and did not mention The Three Cups Hotel. I sent a letter suggesting that The Cups might well be the building which most people would associate with Lyme and want to stay in as visitors. You can click to Read More and see the text of my letter or follow this link and look for page 18 in this week's The Lyme Regis edition.
Dear Sir
Having maintained a blog for eight years to promote the re-opening of The Three Cups Hotel, I was somewhat disappointed with your article, "Protecting Our Prized Asset" in the View From Lyme Regis of 24/10/12. As a civil engineer, I am all in favour of informing the public of the challenges of maintaining The Cobb as a tourist attraction. However, you began with the question "Which is the best loved building in Lyme Regis?" and I would have thought that your possible answers could have included The Three Cups Hotel. In its current condition, it is perhaps the least well cared for but I would suggest that it is dearly loved by many people in Lyme Regis and fans of film and literature from around the UK and abroad.
It would be interesting to know what a public opinion poll would say about which building in Lyme Regis is most loved but far more important to the prosperity of the town would be market research into potential tourist revenue from the promotion of various attractions. Of course, it depends how the questions are phrased. It would be no good to ask, say, a member of a Tolkien society in North America if he would cross the Atlantic to see the place where the author of The Lord of The Rings spent his summer holidays if he were told that the place has been shut for 20 years and is a dilapidating eyesore.
Could I suggest that an analysis of the value tourist attractions in Lyme Regis in terms of return on assets would also be very illuminating? This should include the opportunity cost of assets not currently employed such as The Three Cups Hotel. Indeed, having an closed up hotel on Broad Street must have a negative effect on attracting tourists as well as reducing bed spaces for visitors.
Yours faithfully
Andrew Townsend
Manchester
www.savethe3cups.info
7 Comments:
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Mismanagement is one of the reasons that any infrastructure would not last. When this was a new building, the revenue from this could have been the source of the financial aspect in maintaining this hotel. With proper management, this would still have been one of the most famous hotel.
They could've just make the old building as a place to visit to in the place. Instead of you know, rebuilding it into a whole new establishment. Just to avoid any arguments through the process of redesigning it once again.
If there is a business entrepreneur that would be interested to invest on this old beat-down hotel, then it would soon attract visitors and tourists. It is true, it would be difficult to decide whether to visit a particular place if there is no place to stay.
I agree with you Jorge, however, here in Australia one of the requirement for maintaining an establishment or buildings is if it passed NABERS rating or if it has Building Energy Efficiency Certificate.
Keeping an old hotel would take major renovations and big changes. If you can manage maintaining this old establishment, then why not?
I love the charm of old hotels. When have the creative juices overload, I normally take a photo of it and make it as a postcard/greeting cards for my friends.
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