Grand Hotel: The iconic Sunderland venue which welcomed the stars

The day the Echo had a look round the empty shell of the Grand Hotel in 1974

Transcript

00:00 The Grand Hotel in Sunderland. Once a welcoming place for celebrities to stay. It was ornate,

00:07 had a spiral staircase, and could boast that guests included Corrie Starr, Pat Phoenix,

00:14 Chart Sensation Helen Shapiro, and the fab four themselves, the Beatles. But sadly, the

00:20 hotel, which once boasted the Georgian Room, Jacobean Room, Victoria Room and Stuart Room,

00:27 closed in January 1969 and was put up for auction in 1971. No bids were forthcoming

00:35 and it was withdrawn from the auction. Demolition followed in October 1974 and the Echo was

00:43 there to record these final moments. We caught images of the scaffolding going up, the remnants

00:49 of a once proud era, and the days when the building came down. But what do you remember

00:56 of the Grand Hotel? Email chris.cordner@nationalworld.com to tell us more.

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