Holbeck Hall Hotel
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The Holbeck Hall Hotel was a clifftop hotel in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England, it was owned by English Rose Hotels. The hotel had scenic views of the sea and surrounding area. It was originally built in 1880 by Charles Anderson Smith as a private residence, and was later converted to a hotel. On 3 June 1993 a landslide began beneath the hotel. This increased, and finally on 7 June 1993, a day of heavy rain, the building dramatically fell into the sea, making news around the world.
Despite its location on a clifftop, an information board at the top of the cliff states that the incident was nothing to do with the sea, blaming it on soil creep. This issue is common in Scarborough, with several paths and pavements clearly starting to slip down the hill. Prior to the collapse of the cliff, there had been some very heavy rainfall, resulting in the muddy cliff turning into a porridge. This flowed downhill - quite rapidly for a muddy bank - and ultimately took the hotel with it. At the bottom of the cliff is a pathway which protects it from the North Sea. This was flooded under the mud. When the hotel was built, the pathway was not there, and so Smith was warned that it would be liable to collapse into the sea - a warning which he ignored. Following his death, the pathway was installed, possibly partly to protect the hotel.
In 1997 it became the subject of a significant court case in English civil law when the owners of the hotel sued Scarborough Borough Council for damages, alleging that as owners of the shoreline they had not taken all practical measures to prevent the landslip. The writ was rejected on the grounds that the Council was not liable for the causes of the landslip itself.
The incident has subsequently become an important case study for students of both Geography and Law.
