A campaign has been launched to save Weymouth’s landmark Riviera Hotel, after a couple who married there grew increasingly concerned about its future.
Tess and Des Shepherd married at the Bowleaze Cove hotel in 2018, having decided it would do just as well as a venue abroad with its breathtaking setting and sweeping views of the sea.
Despite living in Surrey, they kept going back to the hotel over the years and could see its decline.
The Art Deco hotel, first built in 1936, was registered as a grade II listed building in 1997. However it seems that this is not enough to force the current owner Diyafa Group, a Saudi Arabian hospitality business, to take action as it crumbles away.
The business had paid £3.5m for it in 2009 and then spent £4m refurbishing it, operating as Bowleaze Limited, under the management of businessman Abdulaziz Musallam.
But by 2020 it was already looking tatty and attracting bad reviews. During the pandemic, the hotel provided temporary accommodation for the homeless, while also going on the market for £5.5 million. It did not sell.
In 2023, the hotel was listed on the Twentieth Century Society’s Buildings at risk register due to “decline and neglect”.
The fortunes of the Riviera, with its distinctive blue and while façade, has long fascinated urban explorers and locals, who are frustrated with the lack of transparency over plans for its future.
Now Tess and Des have set up the Revive the Riviera Association, in a bid to try to create enough momentum to force some action. Tess said: “There are obviously a lot of people who care about this building.
“I have been in contact with a few of the councillors at Dorset Council. I am due to meet up with one of them next month to discuss things further. I have also contacted Lloyd Hatton MP, Historic England and the Twentieth Century Society.
“My thoughts are, if the owner was going to do anything about the hotel, he would have done it by now. It’s already been closed for four years and rapidly declining.
“The council are in discussions with a few interested parties but the owner is hard to get hold of.”
Tess is hoping that people power could finally provoke some action to restore the hotel, which was fenced off in 2022 after suffering storm damage.
She said: “Despite some basic remedial work, the building has seemingly been left to the elements. This hotel has so much potential, given the right investment and vision.
“This project/campaign is about sowing the seeds for change (rather than accepting the status quo) with the hope it can be revived and once again be a thriving hotel and entertainment complex in Weymouth.”
Riviera Hotel Weymouth through the decades
The Riviera Hotel has a long history of ups and downs.
It was designed in a modernist, Spanish-style by the Weymouth architect Lionel Stewart Smith. But as the hotel neared completion, its owner went bankrupt and the hotel remained closed.
The hotel was sold and first opened for the summer holiday season in May 1939, with 70 bedrooms, a private beach, a tennis court, bowling green and putting green. The hotel housed disabled evacuee children during the Second World War.
Then in 1958, it became a Pontins. By 1960, there were 100 bedrooms and a ballroom was also built.
Disaster struck again in December 1960, when there was a fire in the ballroom which burned a 15 foot hole through its wooden floor, showering the billiard room below in debris.
Another fire occurred in August 1968, damaging the ballroom, bar, café, nursery and billiard room.
In 1999, the hotel was sold once more – this time to Hollybush Associates, and had a £1million refurbishment. Hollybush then sold it to the current owner a decade later.
Tess said: “The building is rapidly falling into a state of disrepair. Are we too late? I hope not.”
She added: “One way you can help is to join the Revive the Riviera Association.
“We are a new, unincorporated group that want to co-ordinate support and help those who can do
something.
“To join, simply send an email to riviera@tesslewsey.co.uk with your name, email address, your postcode and your interest in the Riviera Hotel and we’ll add you to our list of supporters.
“You will receive regular email updates to keep you informed on our progress.”