Resort's Beatles hotel set to be turned into flats

A former hotel in Filey which hosted The Beatles in the early days of Beatlemania is to be converted into flats.

The property on The Crescent was originally a group of Victorian townhouses which later became the Hylands Hotel.

The Fab Four stayed there ahead of their performance at The Futurist Theatre in Scarborough on 11 December 1963 which ended in chaos when about 600 fans rushed the stage, leaving 20 girls who had fainted requiring treatment from ambulance crews.

Planners at North Yorkshire Council have now agreed the Grade II listed building can be converted into 17 apartments despite concerns about the impact on the town's conservation area and parking provision.

A heritage statement submitted with the planning application said the hotel had been "well-loved and offered accommodation to a wide variety of patrons, the most notable of these was the visit on the night of December 11, 1963, of The Beatles following a performance at the now-lost Futurist Theatre in Scarborough".

After the chaotic finale to the concert during their rendition of Twist and Shout, the band made a quick getaway by car before spending the night at their hotel in Filey.

Once converted the seafront property, which was most recently a 60-bed care home, will be made up of 11 three-bed flats, five two-bed flats, and a single one-bed flat, with no affordable housing provision.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the council's conservation officer said the permission would require the alterations to the front facade of the building to be "very well specified and of a high quality".

"There are strong concerns regarding the material of the new doors, which are proposed to be aluminium, which is unacceptable given the heritage status of the building," the council was told.

Planners noted that the property's external appearance was "of the greatest heritage significance" and that the exterior façade of the property should retain as much of its original architecture as possible.

The conversion of the building was approved by North Yorkshire Council, subject to conditions.

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