Scaffolding; What Scaffolding?

Above you can see what used to be the Queens Hotel on the Harbour side. It is now well on the way to becoming a block of luxury apartments. It took a long time to make the transition from hotel to apartments, not because the builders didn't have any more orders on the books due to the credit crunch and were trying to make the job last as long as possible. No, the problem really started in Spain, no the builders weren't from Barcelona, it's just a few years ago a group of 400 Spanish tourists turned up with out booking in advance and had to sleep in a barn because there weren't enough hotels for them. The council were so embarrassed, they probably even wrote a grovelling letter of apology to the King of Spain. You know, that nice King Philip. Anyway the council decided they would put a clause in the town charter that once a building had opened as a hotel it had to stay a hotel. Even if it had failed as a hotel, probably due to lack of Spanish tourists. Well the Queens Hotel was derelict when I turned up ten years ago but because of the charter mentioned above it has taken those ten years to get planning permission to turn what was a dump, covered for the last year with scaffolding and plastic sheets flapping in the wind into the luxury apartments they almost are today.

The building just a few doors to the right is being done up but is unoccupied. Suitable as a restaurant, cafe or souvenir shop if you are looking for a centrally placed nice little earner.

The building above has been covered with scaffolding for a couple of months. Just a clean up and a few minor repairs. Radio Gemini have offices in there and there are plenty of office spaces going I believe.

Nice view of the Harbour from the top floor.