In pictures: Holbeck Hall landslip 20th anniversary
- Published
The plight of the Holbeck Hall Hotel in Scarborough became the focus of worldwide interest in June 1993 after a landslip left the cliff-top building just inches away from sliding into the sea. Cracks had been seen near the hotel some weeks before, but it took until the night of 3 June for the cliff near the hotel to finally give way.
Guests staying at the Holbeck Hall Hotel had to make a quick exit after its owners realised the seriousness of the situation following the landslip which left the building perched perilously close to the edge. One guest said: "The manager came and said 'evacuate the hotel, there's been a landslip'. Everybody was fairly calm".
As the cliff near the four star Holbeck Hall Hotel continued to collapse, parts of the building soon began to follow. The local, national and international media descended on the site to watch the cliff-top drama unfold. The hotel's owners could only look on as, bit by bit, it collapsed.
The British Geological Survey (BGS) estimated the landslip which caused the eventual destruction of the Holbeck Hall Hotel saw about one million tonnes of sandy, silty clay fall into the sea. It was caused by heavy rain, poor drainage and water pressure, according to the BGS.
The dramatic but gradual destruction of the Holbeck Hall continued for about 48 hours until, by 5 June 1993, the building had completely collapsed. Audiences across the world followed the building's plight on TV - sometimes watching live as parts of the hotel plummeted down the cliff and into the North Sea.
The area surrounding the site of the former hotel remains scarred by the landslip two decades ago. As BBC Radio York reporter Jules Bellerby, reporting from the scene exactly 20 years on from its destruction, said: "It looks like somebody has attacked with it with a great ice cream scoop and just gouged a piece out."
At the bottom of the cliff where the Holbeck Hall Hotel once stood, the material which fell during the landslip between 3-5 June 1993 has been landscaped, giving little clue as to the dramatic events which took place there 20 years ago.