The Holbeck Hall Hotel was a clifftop

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

, England, owned by the Turner family. It was built in 1879 by George Alderson Smith as a private residence, and was later converted to a hotel. On 4 June 1993, of the

garden had disappeared from view, the beginning of a

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

which gradually became more severe, and finally on 5 June 1993, after a day of heavy rain, parts of the building collapsed, making news around the world. The hotel's chimney stack collapsed live on television just as

Yorkshire TV ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

's ''

Calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...

'' regional news programme went on air covering the building's precarious condition.

Richard Whiteley John Richard Whiteley (28 December 1943 – 26 June 2005) was an English presenter, and journalist, best known for his twenty-three years as host of the game show ''Countdown''. ''Countdown'' was the launch programme for Channel 4 at 4:4 ...

was presenting the item at the time of the collapse. The remainder of the building was demolished for safety reasons. One of the likely contributing causes of the landslide was the substantial rain in the two months before it occurred. The mud flow from the landslide protruded beyond the high-water mark. Landslides are a common problem in Scarborough and along the coast from Filey to Whitby. In 1997, the hotel's collapse became the subject of a significant court case in English civil law (''Holbeck Hall Hotel Ltd v Scarborough BC'') when the owners of the hotel attempted to sue Scarborough Borough Council for damages, alleging that as owners of the shoreline they had not taken any practical measures at all to prevent the landslip – from soft, to hard engineering, nothing was done. The claim was rejected on the grounds that the Council was not liable for the causes of the slip because it was not reasonably foreseeable. Reasonable foreseeability is a requirement for liability in

negligence Negligence (Lat. ''negligentia'') is a failure to exercise appropriate and/or ethical ruled care expected to be exercised amongst specified circumstances. The area of tort law known as ''negligence'' involves harm caused by failing to act as a ...

and

nuisance Nuisance (from archaic ''nocence'', through Fr. ''noisance'', ''nuisance'', from Lat. ''nocere'', "to hurt") is a common law tort. It means that which causes offence, annoyance, trouble or injury. A nuisance can be either public (also "common") ...

in English and Welsh tort law.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Image of hotel shortly after the collapse

English Rose Hotels

Hotel buildings completed in 1879 Hotels in Scarborough, North Yorkshire Defunct hotels in England 1879 establishments in England 1993 disestablishments in England Landslides in the United Kingdom Landslides in 1993 Demolished hotels in the United Kingdom