Chester Road sign
 
 

 
 
No 1 Marlborough Road - Marlborough Hotel
  
     
 



1900
The 50-room Marlborough Hotel is built this year on the corner of Dunwich Road and what was then called Corporation Road. The proprietor is Carl P Bennewitz, a naturalised German whom the early advertisements describe as 'Late Manager Queen's Hotel, Eastbourne'.
The 1901 Census records only two guests staying that night.

Carl Bennewitz wastes no time in embedding himself in the Southwold community: by 1903 he has become a Town Councillor. (SN1903) However, a decade later, he and his wife, Marie, plus a niece, have left Southwold and Carl is managing a hotel in Ipswich. (C1911)

To read an editorial about the hotel, published in the book 'Southwold & Neighbourhood' in 1903, click here.

 
 

(The road is officially renamed 'Marlborough Road' after the hotel in 1911.)

1911
Miss Elizabeth Gold is now running the Marlborough Hotel. She is aged 34 and single and, on the night of the census, has six resident staff. (C1911)
 



 

Mrs Mary Ann Waldorf - Proprietor. Mrs Waldorf, whose second husband is Max Waldorf, also runs a large apartment house, known as Centre Cliff Lodge at No 10 South Green as well as a ladies' and children's hairdresser at No 39 High Street. In 1934 she also purchases No 26 North Parade.

Also in 1934, Mrs Waldorf and her daughter, Muriel, find themselves at the centre of an extraordinary set of events destined to hog the tabloid headlines for months and which comes to be popularly known as the case of 'The Wenhaston Millions'.

To read an account of the case, compiled from contemporary news stories, click here.

1943
The hotel is virtually destryed in a May bombing raid.
 


When was the hotel demolished?
 

Marlborough Court flats built on the site. (date?)
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
   

Do you have any memories or records about this address? Can you correct any of our information or fill in any of our blanks? If so, please email Barry Tolfree
Our forum facility has been withdrawn by the provider. Sorry for the inconvenience. We are looking for an alternative.

SOURCES:
BSD - Bernard Segrave-Daly
BCS = Bygones & Characters of Southwold by Barrett Jenkins
C = Census
CP = Cinema Programme 1958
CSP = Coronation Souvenir Programme 1953
G = Gales Trade Directory
GRO = General Register Office
K = Kelly's Directory
LM = Local memory
M = James Maggs' Southwold Diary 1818-1876
MCG = Methodist Church Guide 1930
NA = National Archives
PP = Pantomime Programme 1933
PLR = Petrol Licence Records
POD = Post Office Directory
PPP = Pier Pavilion Programme 1924, 1926
RCE = Rotary Club Exhibition 1969
SCM = Southwold Catholic Magazine 1923
SCTG = Southwold Corporation Tourist Guide
SER = Southwold Electoral Register
SFP = Southwold Scouts Fete Programme 1947
SG = Southwold Guide
SGCH = Southwold Golf Club Handbook
SLHR = Southwold Local History Recorder 1980s 1990s (Mrs R. McDermot)
SMHS = Southwold Museum & Historical Society
SN = Southwold & Neighbourhood 1903
SPM = Southwold Parish Magazine 1895 -1954
SR = Southwold Recorder 1927, 1932, 1934, 1935
SRB = Southwold Rate Book
SRT = Southwold Railway Timetable 1915
SSAS = Southwold Sea Angling Society Handbook 1909
SST = Southwold Summer Theatre Programmes
SSW = Southwold Shopping Week Programme, June/July 1922
STG = Southwold Town Guide 1930
SVL = Southwold Visitors List 1907, 1930
SVCP = Southwold Victory Celebration Programme 1946
SWCG = Southwold Wesleyan Church Guide
TTR = 'The Town Revisited' - Portraits of Southwold by Stephen Wolfenden 2000
TTT = ''To The Town' - Portraits of Southwold by Stephen Wolfenden 1988
W = White’s History, Gazetteer and Directory of Suffolk 1874
 
Note on dates
Unless otherwise stated, dates given do not indicate the years in which the business started or finished but those for which there is firm evidence that it was trading at this address. Sources in brackets; key at bottom of page.


Site of Marlborough Hotel
Above: View from Marlborough Road of the post-war flats built on the site of the Marlborough Hotel.

Below: The same flats from North Parade, with Dunwich Road on the left and Marlborough Road on the right.

Site of Marlborough Hotel

'Topping out' the Marlborough in about 1900.

Southwold Museum P1997
Click the picture to enlarge

Marlborough Hotel in 1903

The hotel from roughly the same vantage point in about 1903, soon after it had been built. Reproduced from Southwold & Neighbourhood as are the two interior views below.
Click any picture to enlarge

Marlborough Hotel Dining Room c 1903

Marlborough Hotel Sitting Room c 1903

Advertisement for Marlborough HotelAdvertisement from Jarrold's Illustrated Guide to Southwold, 1900, just after the Hotel was built.
Click picture to enlarge

Marlborough Hotel between the Wars

A similar view, probably between the Wars. Reproduced from Barrett Jenkins' book 'Bygones and Local Characters' courtesy of the author's daughter, Ann Thornton.
Click picture to enlarge

Marlborough Hotel in 1930s

From a 1930s postcard of the hotel.
Click picture to enlarge

Marlborough Hotel (date?)

The hotel, probably in the 1950s.
Both the above are reproduced from the Robert Palmer collection of Southwold postcards by kind permission of Margaret Palmer
Click picture to enlarge.