Remembering The Beach Hotel in Worthing, a family-run Art Deco seafront destination

Jonathan Farnes, managing director of the 79-room Worthing seafront hotel, said at the time: “We must not look back; we must look forward to the future.”

Developers were granted consent to bulldoze the hotel, in Marine Parade, and replace it with a new hotel and luxury flats.

Mr Farnes, whose family ran the complex for more than 60 years, said: “I have mixed feelings. It is all I have known all my life.

“It is very sad really, but the old girl is just giving up. It is not really viable as a modern hotel.

“The upkeep of it is just immense.”

Mr Farnes, who ran the hotel with his sister, Linda Martin, said: “Looking ahead, it’s really exciting. I think the new building will put Worthing on the map.

“It is going to be an absolutely fabulous construction, and I think it will be beneficial to Worthing.”

He praised the loyalty of the hotel’s 35-plus staff, some of whom had been with him for more than ten years, with two notching up 31 years and 27 years.

Mr Farnes said: “It has been a pleasure to work with them. They have been loyal, trustworthy and hard-working. Everyone is like one big family. The guests, some of whom have been coming here for years, are very sad, too.”

He said The Beach, had hosted thousands of weddings, wakes, christenings, wedding anniversaries, social functions and annual dinners.

Mr Farnes joined the business in 1976 and subsequently took over from his father, Paul, a Battle of Britain Hurricane fighter ace.

Miss Winifred Farnes, Jonathan’s great aunt, was the first member of the family to run the hotel after it was left to her in a will.

The Beach originally formed the central part of a Victorian terrace but in the 1930s it was expanded and given its distinctive Art Deco frontage, which Mr Farnes thought was ‘ugly’.

However, many mourned the loss of the landmark, even though, according to a council planning report, ‘it did not make a positive contribution to the surrounding conservation area’