Cleethorpes Townscape Heritage Programme

Jump to projects:

Balcony and building frontage restorations

Mermaid Café

Dolphin Hotel

Sea View Street Bottle

About the project

A vision to preserve the buildings that helped to make Cleethorpes one of England’s busiest and best seaside resorts has been realised, thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Centred on Alexandra Road and Sea View Street, grant funding was available to help property owners to restore the historic shop fronts and buildings, some of which are listed.

The Victorian balconies along Alexandra Road were part of the overall scheme, along with public realm work. This complements the paving improvements on the Pier Gardens side of the road, which was supported separately by the Coastal Communities Fund.

This investment has helped to breathe new life into historic buildings and public realm within the Cleethorpes Central Seafront Conservation Area by offering;

An opportunity for historic building owners/occupiers to apply for generous grants to repair their properties, allowing historic details, like shop fronts, iron balconies and windows to be repaired or reinstated
Improved public areas
Provided an opportunity for students, building owners and contractors to learn traditional building conservation skills
A chance to learn about the history of the area, through local exhibitions, guided tours and volunteering opportunities

The Townscape Heritage, (TH) Project, supported by £1.9m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund with a further £1m from North East Lincolnshire Council, has realised the Council’s ambition to ensure the resort’s unique heritage features are restored for a new generation to enjoy.

Watch a video created in 2024 about the Cleethorpes Townscape Heritage Programme:

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FAQs

The NLHF Townscape Heritage programme focused on conserving and enhancing historic buildings on Alexandra Road and Sea View Street which form the Cleethorpes Central Seafront area. There were a total of 78 buildings within the focus area which were eligible to apply for grant funding.

Repair of original shop fronts and balconies (80% of the cost)
Reinstatement of lost historic architectural features, for example, shop fronts, windows, doors (80% of the cost)
Repair of original architectural features, for example, windows, doors, rainwater goods (65% of the cost)
Roof works, but only where condition requires it (65% of the cost)
Works to facilitate bringing long term vacant floor space back into use, for example, creating separate access or introducing utilities (50% of the cost)

If you are interested in learning about the history of the area, traditional building skills, or would like to get involved with a volunteering programme to undertake Heritage Assessments on buildings in the Seafront area, please get in touch with [email protected].

In June 2024, a Heritage Skills day was held with local schools.

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Balcony and building front restoration projects

Through the project, with co-investment from private individuals, several balconies along the historic Alexandra Road have been restored.

Typically dating back to the early 1900s, the balconies were fabricated by several different Scottish foundries and front 26 properties. There are six blocks of differing designs along the road. Working with the Scottish Ironwork Foundation, research has been carried out to identify the designs and Scottish foundries that supplied the structures.

Paint analysis research has been undertaken working in partnership with The University of Lincoln School of History and Heritage Dept, to determine the original colour of the balconies in the resort, and has helped identify a range of heritage colours for the balconies to be painted.

Typically, for the balcony restorations, these have been removed off site, away from the marine environment, for stripping back to the cast iron, priming and re-painting.

Constructed circa 1885, the front of the Grimsby & Cleethorpes branch of RAFA (Royal Air Forces Association) building has had the 140-year-old rotten timberwork replaced, and the 1970s porch gone with a traditional door installed. The blue masonry paint has also been changed for a more sympathetic stone colour in keeping with the Victorian era. You can take a virtual walk around the RAFA building in the Matterport scan below.

The balcony from Numbers 21 to 24 Alexandra Road was manufactured by J & A Law Glasgow and is marked on columns. Similar columns exist at Southport in their 1902 catalogue, thus dating this structure to the early part of the last century. Other similar examples of the balcony panels exist as balconies at Worthing, and as a railing in Edinburgh. Shop fronts and building enhancements have also been undertaken within the project at numbers 21-22 and 24, Alexandra Road.

Number 41 Alexandra Road, also known as Woodliffe Villa is a Grade II listed building. As part of the works, the late 20^th century shop front was replaced with a new shop front to the original design and entrance and redecorated using colours chosen as part of the heritage scheme. This property has its own single cast iron balcony.

Number 33 Alexandra Road has had a colourful past, including being a purveyor of oysters in the early 20^th century, Newman’s jewellers in the late 1960s and more recently, a string of different occupiers. The building facade has been updated, including restoration of the shop front to its Victorian heritage.

42-45 Alexandra Road: This stretch of buildings on Alexandra Road consists of a terrace of several purpose-built shops with residential accommodation behind and above, along with a cast iron balcony on the front elevation, built between 1887 and 1906. The cast iron restoration is currently on site and due for completion in early 2026.

35 – 37 Sea View Street was a former grocers and newsagents store. Through the National Lottery Heritage Fund, there has been a heritage restoration to the façade of the building, and alongside this, the owners undertook a full internal refurbishment of the property. Heritage works start at 35 – 37 Sea View Street, Cleethorpes | NELC. This was the location of the Sea View Street historic bottle.

Balcony photos – use the arrow to scroll through these.

21-22 Alexandra Road shop front, balcony and upper floor restoration

41 Alexandra Road - front door and name above in the skylight

41 Alexandra Road - shop front completion

33 Alexandra Road, shop front, Cleethorpes

Dolphin Hotel 1909, credit NEL Archive Service

Dolphin-Hotel-c1910-Credit-North-East-Lincolnshire-Archive-Servic

Work to pavement on Alexandra Road, Cleethorpes

Mermaid Café

150 years ago, in 1874, the Mermaid Café building on Cleethorpes North Prom sea front was constructed as a waiting room for the recently opened Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. It now forms part of the listed buildings on Cleethorpes Railway Station. The Townscape Heritage project provided grant support to carry out full external restoration including the cast iron, reroofing, and replacement timber panelling with double glazed windows. The leaseholders have restored the interior of the building, with support from The Railway Trust helping to co-fund the renovation. Mermaid rides the crest of a wave in Cleethorpes | NELC

Two men stood in the doorway of the Mermaid Cafe

Two men looking out to sea from inside a building

Dolphin Hotel

Nearly 250 years ago, the Dolphin Hotel, or the “Cleethorpes Hotel” as it was known at the time came into being. The Dolphin Hotel sits on the corner of Market Place and Alexandra Road in the seaside resort of Cleethorpes, and over the years has played a major role in the history and development of the town. The building has been a hotel, restaurant, oyster bar, café and in more recent years, various nightclubs, and now (2025) the current owners are undertaking a major project to restore the building, part funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund money. Work starts on site on the refurbishment of the Dolphin in Cleethorpes | NELC

Dolphin from the Pier in the 1870s. Credit NEL Archive

Dolphin postcard 1909. Credit NEL archive

Cleethorpes originally consisted of three hamlets, Itterby, Oole and Thrunscoe. The old town street of Itterby is the present Sea View Street and the former market place of Oole is now Market Street.

From the 13th to the late 15th century there was a gradual decline in the fortunes of the small settlements along this coast, due largely to the effects of the silting up of the local waterways. During the 16th century the economy of Cleethorpes comprised of fishing industry and mixed arable farming centred upon the higher till outcrops of the marshland.

By the mid 18th century, Cleethorpes was gaining a reputation as a seaside resort Cleethorpes, popular with the wealthy during this period for newly fashionable health reasons to “take the waters”.

At the time, cold bathing for men and women, otherwise known as “taking the waters” was recommended by medical practitioners as beneficial for various physical and mental ailments as well as having curative properties to help with skin conditions, arthritis, and other ailments.

The first hotel constructed in Cleethorpes was the “Cleethorpes Hotel” in 1760 which was located on the same site as the later “Dolphin Hotel”. (Source: Buildings of England Series, Lincolnshire, N. Pevsner, J. Harris, N. Antram, pub. 1989 (2nd ed), pp. 222-223.)

In the 1820s, the Dolphin Hotel was rebuilt (the three storey section), according to White’s 1826 directory, in response to growing numbers of visitors coming to the resort.

The earliest map found showing buildings on the site is the John & Christopher Greenwood map (1830), and a Plan of the Parish of Clee (for Tithe Commissioners) dated the 30th of June 1843.

By 1843, the site was owned by Richard Thorold Esquire, and occupied by ‘James Wright & Others.’ An interesting reference is found in the Stamford Mercury on the 3rd of June 1814, noting that the Cleethorpes Hotel and Inn is ‘now in compleat repair, elegantly furnished, and ready to be let to any respectable tenant with the usually let herewith’.

The Dolphin Hotel was later extended in 1873/4 to include the left (southerly) section, along with the single storey addition. This is shown in the OS maps, published in 1889. The single storey section was developed into an Oyster Shop and then later the Dolphin Coffee House.

During the 1800s Cleethorpes was the centre of UK trade for its ‘large and cheap’ oysters, reputedly cultivating over 10 million oysters a year. According to one website, at that time the Humber supported one of the most prevalent native oyster populations in the UK, with beds so expansive they were a recognised shipping hazard. This thriving industry was one of the largest employers in the town at the time. According to one website, 150 men worked the fishery at its peak.

In 1939, an advert for the Dolphin boasted of electric lights throughout the hotel and hot and cold running water in all bedrooms. This rivalled nearby hotels like the Cliff or Old Clee Park.

The Dolphin Hotel continued to attract household names as guests, including the comic duo Laurel and Hardy in the 1950s and Norman Wisdom in the 1970s and changed to become a nightclub in 1994.

The Dolphin Hotel has an important social history too, being used for several significant meetings, including meetings related to the 1842 Act to acquire land along the seafront for the development of a promenade.

The Dolphin Hotel was also used by the Coroner in 1844, and for auctions, and other events, including that held in 1842 by ‘the coast shipwreck association’ who held their annual meeting in Cleethorpes, where after trials and an exhibition of lifeboats and life-saving apparatus, the associated ‘retired to the Dolphin Hotel where they partook of a splendid dinner, which reflected the greatest credit on Mr & Mrs Colton, the landlord and landlady.

Additional custom were also seized upon by the owners of the time. A rather gruesome piece of news in the Lincolnshire Chronicle in 1843 states: “Cleethorpes – On Sunday last as Wm. Page, one of the workmen employed at this inclosure, was walking on the sea shore, he found part of a human hand, which had been washed up by the tide. It appears a man’s right hand from the wrist, containing the thumb and finger nails complete, the skin is white, resembling wash-leather. It was given to Mr. Colton, the landlord of the Dolphin Hotel for the inspection of the curious.” (Lincolnshire Chronicle – Friday 14 April 1843)

The Hotel was used for more pleasant charitable work too. In 1867, the landlord was Mr Pratt, and a snippet from the minutes of the Board of Guardians for Grimsby Union, 6th September 1897: It was announced to the Board that “…Mr Pratt of the Dolphin Hotel, Cleethorpes, was desirous of entertaining the Workhouse children at Cleethorpes.” The Board agreed unanimously that the children should be allowed to go.

Source: STATEMENT OF HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE, March 2024. Elizabeth Mayle. Included with Planning application.

Sea View Street Bottle

Sea View Street, known as Town Street in the district of Itterby, many sailors would have been coming and going, preparing for their voyages at sea.

At this time, a common occurrence was to bury a bottle of urine as a superstition for a safe journey home. However, they seldom survive, let alone over 200 years!

Earlier this year, heritage works were carried out at 35-37 Sea View Street as part of the National Lottery Heritage funded Townscape Heritage (TH) project for Cleethorpes. During development, excavations were being carried out at the rear of the building in preparation for building foundations of a new extension. Workers had to manually excavate an area, as it was too tight for a small digger to work in.

It was during these works that a rather unique find was made – a sealed bottle full of liquid. Since then, it’s been on quite the journey with Lincoln University doing analysis on the the contents. Read the full story: A message, an expensive alcohol or something else: The story of what was in the Seaview Street bottle | NELC

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Colourful Cleethorpes – Activity Resources

As part of the Townscape Heritage Project, artist, Vanessa Whittleton, was commissioned to produce some drawings for a colouring book.

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