Chelsea Hotel

Chelsea Hotel

The Chelsea Hotel in Gloucester Street was owned by the Binnington family and developed into one of the town's largest in the 1980s. Most islanders knew it as the place to go to renew their car tax in January in the second half of the 20th century

The Chelsea Private Hotel in Gloucester Street was a popular package hotel at the height of the tourism industry. This photograph shows clearly how the original three-bay boarding house expanded into the properties with bay windows to the right, before the whole site was eventually rebuilt, although retaining much of the facade. The Christmas Card below suggests that the expansion started in 1927, when guests were photographed on the pavement in front of the boarding house and the first of the bay-window properties

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  The Chelsea Boarding Establishment in 1926
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  Ford's Commercial Family Boarding House, that became part of The Chelsea Hotel
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  Ford's Commercial Family Boarding House, that became part of The Chelsea Hotel
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  Chelsea House, 1926
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  The Chelsea Boarding House at 11 Gloucester Street became The Chelsea Hotel
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  Chelsea Boarding Establishment Xmas card from 1926 ...
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  ... and the following year
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  The Chelsea Hotel dining room
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  Chelsea Hotel in the 1970s
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  The Chelsea Hotel ballroom
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  Chelsea Hotel foyer
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  The Chelsea Hotel, Gloucester Street in 1976. Although the building had two extra storeys added, it retained the original bay windows
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  The Chelsea Hotel pool
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  Ballroom
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  Tudor Bar
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  Chelsea Hotel ballroom

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  Memento for guests
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  1970 advert

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1936 brochure

This brochure, produced by the hotel after a record season in 1935 saw 4,500 guests stay at the Chelsea.

The brochure, sent to anyone inquiring about a stay at the hotel the following year, praised the island's climate, with sunshine hours twice those of London and equal to Montpellier in the South of France and Padua in Italy.

The hotel boasted a dining room able to accommodate 500 guests at a single sitting, and a dance floor catering for the same number at daily dances, featuring a 'good orchestra'. Unlimited food was of the highest quality, sourced in Great Britain or elsewhere in the British Empire. The kitchens were under the personal supervision of the proprietors, Mrs A Quenault and Mr R Binnington.

In addition to the daily free dances, the hotel offered its guests a weekly sports day on the beach at St Brelade, afternoon and all-day coach tours, day excursions to France, and a full programme of other events through the week, including rock climbing excursions and clifftop picnics.

The guests obviously enjoyed their stay, and in 1935 1,000 guests and friends had attended the annual end-of-season reunion dance and whist drive in London, already in its tenth year.

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  Ballroom
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  Kitchen
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  Lounge
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  Reading room
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  Lounge
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  Covered courtyard
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  A typical bedroom
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  1964 advert
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  1931
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  1935 advert in the Jersey Leader