Grand Hotel (Brighton)

The Grand Brighton
The Grand Brighton, from the southwest
Location along the waterfront of Brighton
General information
Location	Brighton, United Kingdom
Address	97-99 Kings Road, BRIGHTON BN1 2FW
Coordinates	50°49′17″N 0°08′50″W / 50.82139°N 0.14722°W / 50.82139; -0.14722
Opening	1864
Design and construction
Architect	John Whichcord Jr.
Website
http://www.grandbrighton.co.uk/

The Grand Brighton Hotel is a historic Victorian sea front hotel in Brighton on the south coast of England.

The Grand Hotel was designed by architect John Whichcord Jr., and built in 1864 on the site occupied previously by a battery house. It was built for members of the upper classes visiting Brighton and Hove and remains one of the most expensive hotels in the city. Among its advanced engineering features at the time was the "Vertical Omnibus", a hydraulically powered lift powered by cisterns in the roof. This was the first lift built in the United Kingdom outside London, at a time when only two others had been installed. The building itself is an example of Italian influence in Victorian architecture.

The hotel was bombed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the early morning of 12 October 1984, in an attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher during the Conservative Party conference. The bomb exploded at 2:51am 12 October. It had been hidden three weeks earlier behind the bath panel of room 629 (currently 621).

Thatcher survived the bombing, but five other people died in the attack, including Roberta Wakeham, wife of the government's Chief Whip John Wakeham, and the Conservative MP Sir Anthony Berry. Norman Tebbit, a member of the Cabinet, was injured, along with his wife Margaret, who was left paralysed. Thatcher insisted that the conference open on time the next day and made her speech as planned in defiance of the bombers, a gesture which won widespread approval across the political spectrum.