Holbeck Hall: The Scarborough hotel that fell into the sea 25 years ago

June 5 marks the anniversary of a dramatic weekend which saw a Scarborough clifftop hotel fall into the sea following a landslip.
File photo dated 8/6/1993 of the scene at the Holbeck Hall Hotel in Scarborough, North Yorks, after a massive landslip. A local authority was today cleared of causing the destruction of the 120-year-old luxury Victorian hotel which collapsed 150ft down a cliff face to the beach below. A High Court judge ruled in 1997 that Scarborough Council had breached its duty of care but the Court of Appeal overruled the decision, Tuesday February 22, 2000. See PA story COURTS Hotel. PA photo: John Giles.File photo dated 8/6/1993 of the scene at the Holbeck Hall Hotel in Scarborough, North Yorks, after a massive landslip. A local authority was today cleared of causing the destruction of the 120-year-old luxury Victorian hotel which collapsed 150ft down a cliff face to the beach below. A High Court judge ruled in 1997 that Scarborough Council had breached its duty of care but the Court of Appeal overruled the decision, Tuesday February 22, 2000. See PA story COURTS Hotel. PA photo: John Giles.
File photo dated 8/6/1993 of the scene at the Holbeck Hall Hotel in Scarborough, North Yorks, after a massive landslip. A local authority was today cleared of causing the destruction of the 120-year-old luxury Victorian hotel which collapsed 150ft down a cliff face to the beach below. A High Court judge ruled in 1997 that Scarborough Council had breached its duty of care but the Court of Appeal overruled the decision, Tuesday February 22, 2000. See PA story COURTS Hotel. PA photo: John Giles.

Holbeck Hall Hotel collapsed in 1993 when a rotational soil slip occurred beneath the Victorian building.

Footage of the erosion was captured on camera by film crews and broadcast all over the world. Famously, the chimney stack fell into the sea during a live segment by ITV Calendar’s Richard Whiteley.

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The hotel was originally built as a private house in 1879, and was bought by owners Barry and Joan Turner in 1988.

It had to be demolished completely after the incident - exacerbated by heavy rain - and the Turners used the insurance pay-out to buy a hotel in Malton. The couple died in 2003 and 2013 - the years of the 10th and 20th anniversaries of the collapse.