The new owners of Tenby’s Imperial Hotel are being urged to respect historic features of the Listed building in their refurbishment plans.

The seafront Imperial, established more than a century ago, has just been sold to Crest Hotels, which has eight other ‘unique’ hotels in the UK in its portfolio.

The four-storey building, with 45 bedrooms, overlooks Tenby’s South Beach and has access to the town walls via a walkway.

It was sold by Christie & Co and was advertised for sale with a price tag of £2.5million.

Plans have now been submitted to the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority for proposed bedroom alterations and refurbishment, including the bar/lounge area, at the hotel on The Paragon.

Tenby Town Council has recommended approval of the plan and welcomed the renovations, but has suggested to the Park authority: "Any historic features within the rooms (e.g. coving) should be preserved."

Town walls access

This has been echoed by Tenby Civic Society, which stated members’ concern that it was not clear if there are decorative period features to the rooms – such as cornices – and that the fixing of new lower ceilings will not affect them.

The society also noted the ‘intimate connection' of the building with the town walls and suggested that  the importance of the section of original walkway (one of only two) on the walls from the hotel to the tower overlooking the sea should feature in the heritage report.

The society added: "The lack of public access onto the walls here repeats continued missed opportunities for that in the town."