The Three Cups Hotel, Lyme Regis, Dorset

This hotel is right in the middle of the busy main street. Visiting on a Saturday morning in October 2009, I waited for a good twenty minutes on the other side of the road until I just managed to get a photo during a break in the traffic whilst no-one walked past the building at the same time. We suffer for our art! ;)

The hotel has been left empty for approximately twenty years. I recall reading a report in the local paper that subsidence made it unsafe and the local council forcibly closed it, turning out the owners, but I can't find the actual reference to corroborate it. A Grade II listed building, there is currently a campaign to re-open it as an hotel.

Lovely double doors at the front, reminiscent of an art deco cinema. And two lovely round topped Georgian 14-pane windows to the side on the ground floor.

Built circa 1807, the hotel began its life as Hiscott's Boarding House. The original Three Cups (another hotel entirely) was still standing, but after it burnt down in 1844 the name was taken on by Hiscott's. Predominantly built with Blue Lias stone, with red brick chimneys and corner quoins of limestone (most probably from the quarry in Beer, Devon), this was the largest building in Lyme Regis at the time.

Several well-known people have stayed here, including J R R Tolkein, Jane Austen (in 1804 when it was called Hiscott's), H W Longfellow and G K Chesterton. It is thought that Tolkein, who stayed here several times, even wrote some of his book The Lord of the Rings here. In 1944, General Eisenhower delivered an important briefing to senior officers in the first floor lounge prior to D-Day. The hotel was also used in the film "The French Lieutenant's Woman" adapted from the book of the same name written by John Fowles who lived in the town.

 
The remains of the old gateposts, above.
 

The former entrance to the rear car park, at the side of the building, is dereliction delight! Lots of interesting features as well as cut-away plaster and brickwork showing the Blue Lias stone beneath. 

In his Discworld novels, Terry Pratchett described the unseen exterior areas of a grand building to be in direct inverse proportion to how it looks at the front. I think he had a point here. ;)

Two side doors, including this rather simple but lovely old door on the right.

Looking back along the side passage, below...

...And coming out into the car park behind the hotel.

Beautifully higgledy-piggedly, the rear part of the building is built across the end of the car park entrance.

A closer shot shows details of the fabulous slate-hung wall.

Sheds and a garage, although I'm not sure if the garage belongs to the hotel as the fencing is between it and the car park. I think the cars may have come in that way as the passage is a little tight for vehicles; the passage used for access between the car park and the hotel.

You can just about make out the Cobb jutting out into the sea on the left side of the garage, below.

And finally...Car Park Closed! 

Another one that I'd like to go back to, check out the garage and car park a bit more and take some more photos overall, but maybe next year or later on this year if possible. :)