The Riviera Palace Hotel, Penzance

[KitCarson]

Hi, does anyone know where in Penzance this hotel was?  In the 1911 census, Mary Cameron Edgar b.1874 in Elgin, Morayshire, Scotland is the Housekeeper.

I've also found mention of Mary on a passage from Durban to Southampton in 1922 (single woman aged 44) giving her address as 109 Claremont Road, Forestgate, Essex.

I've found an image of the hotel but have no idea if it still exists.

Not sure if the link will work but there is an image on 'Postcards of Cornwall'
http://cornish-postcards.wikidot.com/penzance

Any help would be appreciated.  Kit

[KGarrad]

Previously known as Polwithen House, it stood on Alverton Road.

Some info in this article: http://www.paulmason.info/Alverton/history.htm

[KitCarson]

Thanks KGarrad.  There is a note on the 1911 census which looks like it was made in pencil and it looks like Polwithen Hotel.  Quite shocking that on the night of the census there were 17 members of staff and only 2 guests (husband and wife).

Looking on Google Street view, Alverton Road is very, very long with no obvious contenders.  I wonder if it still stands.

Kit

[hanes teulu]

http://www.bolithoschool.co.uk/contents.php?pageid=1595&parentid=1068

photo of Bolitho School - South frontage

National Archives has a reference to Polwithen House being transferred to St Clare's School in 1918 - which became, I believe, Bolitho School

The Riviera Palace may have closed in 1917 - found a reference to a post on a separate site (An....y) but can't find it again!!!

Possibility?

[hanes teulu]

The link doesn't deliver the photo - so click on "Galleries" and choose 360 degree virtual tour

[KitCarson]

It certainly looks like the right place.  Fantastic.  Thanks a lot, Kit

[hanes teulu]

An advert from the Cornishman, 11 April, 1918 -

PENZANCE CHURCH OF ENGLAND HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, Polwithen, Penzance
Splendid new premises (late Riviera Palace Hotel). Eleven acres of lovely grounds ...........

[KitCarson]

Her hotelier father, James Edgar, died at the Craigellachie Hotel, Aberlour, Banffshire in 1916 and left her £100 in his will.  I wonder if she went on to another hotel before heading off to South Africa for a break. 

Thanks for your help. Kit

[dairymaid]

To Kit

The building (now Bolitho private school) is still there but much altered.  It's grounds must have stretched down to Alverton Street as the building itself is set quite a way from Alverton Street.  The grounds now hold such roads as King's Road, along which length you have to travel from Alverton Street and then up another road (the name escapes me although it may be Clements Road) before you reach the building itself. 

Alverton Street isn't really as long as it may look.  It was the main road into Penzance, previously the A30, from Alverton Manor, after which it was named. It's about a twenty minute walk along its length (done it many times!).

Dairymaid