Ritz Hotel
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House, school and hotel
The Ritz Hotel started life as a private house, then became a school at the end of the 19th century and was turned into a hotel in the 1930s. Photographs in existence of hotel staff and guests in the 1920s, one of which is featured on this page, suggest that the Ritz Hotel had previously operated at different premises. It was commandeered by the Germans during the Occupation, reverting to use as a hotel after the Liberation. It has now been demolished and the site given over to luxury apartments.
It had the unique distinction of being used as an official polling booth for St Helier No 3 District in the 1966 election for Deputies.
The property at 85 Colomberie, which is at the eastern end of this main St Helier artery, opposite the gates of the Howard Davis Park was originally owned by the La Cloche family.
Distinguished old boys
John La Cloche and his wife Jane lived there with their two daughters, and the property was eventually sold to W H Burt in 1985, the former headmaster of St Luke's School, who opened the Jersey High School for Boys which was to provide a good education for a number of future distinguished islanders, among them Sir Daniel Cabot and E A Dorey.
The premises were taken over in 1905 by Charles Spargo, who had previously run the Jersey Modern School in Rouge Bouillon and now transferred it to Colomberie. He was succeeded as headmaster first by W L Clift and then H W Benton, before the school moved to Le Coie Hall in 1929 and the building was converted to a hotel.
Although the frontage remained largely unchanged, after the addition of a reception area, and the school playground was converted to a car park, the building was developed extensively to the rear and at one time had 100 bedrooms, and was the venue for discotheques, club dinners, exhibitions and other social functions, under the ownership of Modern Hotels.
Sources
- The historical Hotels and Inns of Jersey, by Philip Ahier and W S Ashworth.
Gallery
Click on any image to see a larger version
The hotel in the 1950s
Staff and guests in 1924
And in 1925
The Ritz Hotel
The hotel ballroom
Hotel dining room
1930s
1948
Reception hall
A holiday snapshot - picture courtesy of Jersey Temps Passe
The Ritz Hotel was on the corner of Colomberie and St Clement's Road, and is now the site of social housing known as "Keith Baal Gardens"
The front lounge of The Ritz Hotel, the height of luxury in its day
Ritz Hotel reception in the 1950s
Ritz Hotel in 1932
Ritz Hotel in 1932
1964 tourism guide advert
