The Crosby Hotel which stands at the corner of Normanby Road and Berkeley Street could have been demolished if plans submitted to the council were approved. Planning permission had twice been submitted to erect a 70-bed care home for the elderly with associated car parking which included the demolition of the existing hotel, this second application was withdrawn in January 2011.

The Crosby Hotel is still boarded up and it's future remains in the balance.

The Crosby Hotel was constructed in 1910 for the People's Refreshment Houses Association by the Thornhill Brothers of Lincoln, the architects being Mortimer & Son and opened in 1911. To the rear of the hotel were once bowling greens, a tennis court and a tea garden. Under construction in 1910

The Crosby boasted a public bar, billard room, a wood panelled dining room and a first floor ballroom, the latter would be known to many people as The Hanger in its last few years were rock bands played. A large greenhouse ensured a good supply of flowers which helped keep the hotel to a high standard and there were two allotments which ensure there was an abundant supply of vegatables and salads. A price list from 1911 lists Scotch whisky at 4d. a gill, and ale, stout, cider dry ginger and minerals at 3d. The Crosby Hotel c1912

The People's Refreshment Houses Association was rooted in the Temperance movement and in the Memorandum & Articles of Association under Aims and Objects the company stated it's the intention to encourage people to drink less and that everyone one of their hotels had to provide food to minimise consumption of alcohol.

 The People's Refreshment Houses Association was subsequently taken over by Courage which was then part of the Imperial Tobacco Group. The hotel was first run by Thomas Beck and the Beck famliy were associated with it for many years. Thomas Beck retired in the late 1940s to be replaced, with some irony, by a Mr. Drinkwater. From 1951 to 1957 Cyril Beck, Thomas Beck's son, ran the Crosby Hotel and another of Thomas's sons, Bill Beck took over in 1959 until he retired in 1966. Tea Gardens and bowling green at the rear of the hotel

 It had a change of name in the 1970s when it was renamed the Henry VIII but returned to it's original name in the 1980s. Sadly it closed and has remained boarded up for over two years. September 2009

In April 2011 the Crosby Hotel would have reached it's one hundredth birthday. Given the age, style and architecture of the building and the memories generations of people will have is this something our Charter Trustees should protect from the bulldozer like they have done with the 1931 facade of the Baths Hall.