History

Luxury apartments, museum, another hotel? What do you think should happen to the Grand Island building?

malcolm buckler
This landmark building should be fully renovated and given the promotion it deserves as an all round hotel and conference centre, at a time when the Ramsey area has never been so short of visitor beds and corporate facilities. However, it will require an exceptional entreprenure to produce an imaginative plan worthy of the investment. He would also have to be prepared to become a local hero !

gra gor
save the building and save your heritage. Rhumsaa needs the pier and it needs it's old buildings. Gragor from Vancouver Island BC Canada.

Debbie brennan (Lomax)
we used to visit my nana and grandad in the Isle of man every year in the Isle of man.As a special treat we would be taken to dinner at the Grand Island hotel.We always were treated like royalty,and thouth I was small at the time have memories of a lavish set dinner table overlooking beautiful gardens.I now live in the states a couple of years ago I worked with realtors in a beautiful old but run down victorian era building that was converted into condos for retirees.Would this not be something to consider for this Grand old place?

Robert
It is a sad time to see the End of the Hydro Hotel Ramsey go But come on please lets move away from the old voctorian buildings and let new blood create something as splendid so future enerations will say wow what great archiecture that buiding has

Della Moore
I live in Ramsey and feel that the Grand should be preserved as a tourist attraction for the north of the island. The Isle of Man seems to mirror the UK in so many ways and this also applies to the North/South divide with Douglas and the South being the rich relations with regard to investment, resources and facilities. This needs to change.

Susan
Once grand old buildings like these are gone, they are gone forever, along with another bit of the Island's history and unique identity! -They should be preserved for present and future generations to enjoy! The North of the Island needs a great events venue and a cultural/arts and entertainment centre. Please don't pull it down!

thomas kelly
have it as a museum

keith
Perhaps they might build another swimming pool, after all there are only two at the moment!

DAVID KEMP
I WAS BORN IN RAMSEY I.O.M MIGRATED TO AUSTRALIA 1954,I'M A GREAT GRANDSON OF WILLIAM BALL SKIPPER OF THE WANDERER,LUSITANTA RESCUE.TYNWALD SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF ITSELF IF THE GRAND OLD LADY AT RAMSEY IS PULLED DOWN.PRESERVE HER NOT DESTROY HER,PLEASE.FROM A PROUD MANXMAN,

Yannis Breath
Whatever replaces it.. it should be as beautiful and accessible as the Grand was. Will it be so???

Sarah Starkey
Please don't pull the Grand Island down!!! My father in law Gerald Starkey decorated it in the 70's or 80's.The last time the family visited was after my father in law died. My husband and his brother and sister went back to the island to scatter my father in laws ashes and they decided to stay at the Grand Island because as a child growing up in Ramsey, Gerald Starkey never thought he would ever get to stay in the Grand Island. When he did stay there several years ago he felt that he had achieved something he never thought he would and he had a holiday to remember. I have stayed there several times over the last decade. It's the only place where you can see the most amazing sun rise. All it needs is some TLC and soemone to invest and return it to it's former glory.

Bruce
Knock it down! Here is a chance for the Island's planners to prove they have an imagination. What ever the owner decides to do with it - hotel, apartments or leisure complex - create a new landmark. Not one like all the rest, that looks back to the Victorian era that none of us remember but one that looks forward into the 21st century. Douglas has become Heritage Homesville. Lets see some contemporary architecture on this Island that shows an architects imagination. To Mr Hemmings - create a landmark Ramsey will be proud of. To the planners - OPEN YOUR EYES!

MRS D R DOBSON
my memories will remain with me my family at christmas and my daughter singing there precious memories great staff too

andy
I live in the north of the Island and the only time I went into the Grand Island was for the Ramsey Grammar School prom and it was a shambles, the food was rubbish and place was shabby! I won't miss this place-it was falling down anyway. But I don't think apartments should not be put there! No one can afford to live in them!

Les Grant
What a great shame to see another piece of Manx histroy be trashed by UK developers who have no sense of Manx pride.

kiytyn
Not that we have a choice anymore, but this building should be preserved; renovated and re-established as a 4 or 5 star hotel with something a little special to offer. Give the north of the Island some pride back. The Government and Council need to stop running Ramsey into the ground. Stop proving us right and surprise Ramsey residents by being sympathetic to the community's wishes for once.

siobhan
What about a spa, or an entertainment complex - cinema, bowling, hotel, club, restaurants, shopping. Fog goodness sake the last thing we need on this island is more apartments!! Look around you - all you see are apartments, lying empty and new ones being put up all over the place. They are for the most part EMPTY!! Are apartments the easy option for property conversion these days or something?

John Manley
If it was made into appartments, the seaward facade should be retained.

mark w
The Grand Island is an historic landmark of Ramsey as is the Queens Pier & Albert Tower. why do developers always seem to think that people want apartments instead. What they need to do is look at it realistically. Fair enough if you want apartments then put these on the top floor but have lower levels for a 5* hotel with spa complex and conference venue. Being a resident for years I remember when the Davies owned it and refurbished it, if they could do it then why can't other people!!!

Nicole Smith
Anything, but why allow it to be demolished in the process? Very bizarre, as if the planners have the cash to create anything nearly as beautiful as this.

David
Who is going to live in all these new arpartments. At some point the market will reach saturation point.No point in building a new hotel,as the customers no longer visit the island

knaap85@hetnet.nl
I think it could be a nice place for a business centre. That could be good for the economy of the Island.

Ro
If they have to take it down then a new hotel should be put there, rather than on Ramsey Quay. people like views and peace. This area would make a lovely 5* hotel and spa. Put the apartments on the quay which would be convenient for people who wouldn't have to drive into town, causing more congestion if they didn't want to.

viper
Spend the money on a complete refurbishment....and save some of the Island's heritage(including the pier) before we all become the next English town on the Island much like Douglas already is.

pip
There has to be a ballance between the old and the new. It seems developers and buisness men are able to run a beautiful building that is part of our history into the ground, with a view to forcere-development. How the government can sleep at night, I will never no, maybe they sleep on piles of backhanders. We nearly lost our pier, and now were about to loose another landmark. Where will it stop? Shall we knock down Peel castle, castle rushan and rushan abbey while we are about it? When I talk to Ramsey residents it is clear they have lost all faith in government and local council. Why are they screwing our town into the ground?

barry g
It's a shame if they end up knocking it down. So many of the Islands great Victorian hotels have gone before it. The majestic. The Douglas bay. The villiers. At least the Falcon Cliff still survives but is now an office block. Another nail in the coffin for Manx Tourism and nostalgia. They'll be sorry...........That's it. Build another skate park that wont be used in a few years time.

Timothy Glassey
Yep Knock it down. The whole place has been problematic ever since it was built. People should take off their rose-tinted glasses when it comes to old building like this. Do we want another crumbling reminder of the last century or do we want a building which refects and caters for the needs of the Isle of Man people TODAY.

Duncan Smith
It does not seem right that the planners can give the go ahead to build on a green field site on the prom when there are buildings falling down and boarded up in central Ramsey.The developers should be made to use existing sites or refurbish this grand old building.

col
Yes its true ramsey has been destroyed by a rivalry with douglas that goes back centuries.

Lorraine
It would be a crying shame to turn this historic and beautiful building into a block of apartments. It should be preserved at all costs.

Alan Smith
I agree with Derek. If developers employed more long-term about projects like this they would be more inclined to renovate instead of constantly knocking buildings down and starting again with sub- standard building materials and bland, meaningless, ugly architecture which will not be valued in the future. In London they have poured an extra bit of money in and brought old buildings alive again. It has proved a big hit with tourists because they are not just beautiful buildings but an important part of heritage. Here they knock it down and replace it with rubbish. When will you ever learn Isle of Man Government. Get with the times and start to value your heritage, either that of turn yourselves completely into a faceless and ugly bank for the rich to put money into as long as they are never forced to visit, or god forbid, to contribute to the local way of life.

Andy
It would be such a shame to see this grand old building gutted, or even worse, knocked down, in order to make way for yet more 'luxury apartments' that aren't needed on the Isle of Man. I appreciate it's not a sound business plan, but it would be fantastic to restore it to it's former glory, as it was in it's heyday in the 1920's. Given the billionaire owner only lives several miles from the hotel, surely the cost of renovation would be a drop in the ocean to him, in order to keep a little bit of Manx history alive?

Derek
At the very least the frontage should be preserved. But there again, whenever did they ever try to preserve anything in Ramsey? Remember South Ramsey, the Town Hall, Queen's Pier...........