The Metropole Hotel

Thanks for your memory, Gerald. I remember the site being a public car park back in the late '70s/early '80s, which my parents used regularly, and I vaguely remember there being some remnants of an old building. The gap provided a great view of the sea from the town until the 'new' building went up! I'd been wondering what had been there in the past - this is the first photo I've found that shows the hotel clearly.

Behind the church in the town centre stood The Tuckers Hotel (famous for having The Empress Elizabeth of Austria as a guest in1887) which was demolished in the 1960's and its site was later occupied by Barclays Bank and the Nationwide Bank (both now gone). A little farther along Tucker Street stood the Metropole which dominated the water front skyline from 1894 and was a red brick monolith which to my recollection never re-opened, after being de-requisitioned after W.W.2,, but I think it was converted to flats, suffered a mysterious fire and was demolished in the 1970's. It is now the site of De Vere Court apartments.
Next door to the Metropole was the East Cliff Hotel which sort of hung on the Cliff edge just by the Red Lion Hotel. This was converted into flats immediately after de-requisition.
Ron Jackson - (an extract from my articles of 19th and 26th April 2018 in the North Norfolk News)