I Was There

A Memory of Overstrand.

After being de-requisitioned and restored at the end of WW2, the Overstrand Hotel was a massive building standing only yards from the cliff edge, it opened, then closed, then re-opened with a new bar called “Bubbles Bar” to cater for the modern post war holiday makers, who frankly never came.
Around the late 1940's there were some very high tides which scored the unprotected cliff, creating a massive cliff fall. I went to see it on my way home from work and a chunk of land about the size of a football pitch had fallen into the sea. Left standing was a small bungalow and next to that the Hotel. Shortly after, during the night, Bubbles Bar caught fire, which in turn spread into the hotel and although the fire brigade tried to save it, irreparable damage was done. The Hotel was demolished or fell into the sea after more cliff falls which eventually took the road behind the hotel and followed its foundations onto the beach.
Ron Jackson - (This is an extract from my two articles on the old Cromer Hotels, written 19th and 26th April 2018 for the North Norfolk News).