The Grand is a dog-eared Cluedo board of a hotel. The art deco ballroom, its sprung dancefloor covered by carpet, opens into a library used for community events, which in turn leads to an enormous dining room, while the other wing has a billiards room. Everything in this Folkestone landmark is a bit higgledy-piggledy: spare tables and chairs shoved to one side, curtains askew, a grand piano here and there.
A 1920s-style mural completes the Agatha Christie feel. There’s even a stray three-pronged candlestick. The man with the black envelope is Pierre Condou, a restaurateur with a pedigree in London’s members’ clubs and part of a community group that plans to restore the Grand to its former grandeur, back when King Edward VII held court at the seaside here with his mistress, Alice Keppel, at the start of the 20th century.
“It was like getting the keys to the sweet shop,” says Condou, striding around the room. “There is so much potential.” He wants to transform the entrance, an airy atrium with chequerboard tiles known as the Palm Court, into a modern brasserie, and create an events space in the public rooms, for weddings or corporate events.
“Folkestone, the whole Kent coast and seaside resorts generally in Great Britain, I think, are on the verge of a renaissance,” he says. Condou is betting on the Grand’s future success because of the influx of DFLs – Down From London – who moved here when the Covid pandemic demonstrated that working from h.