Demolition begins on Brighton hotel ravaged by fire

Demolition has begun on a hotel in Brighton which was ravaged by a fire last weekend.

The fire broke out at the Royal Albion Hotel on Saturday evening with firefighters managing to bring the blaze under control on Monday.

A police investigation has begun into the cause of the fire but police say no further details about the cause of the fire can be released at this stage.

The council says it wants to save as much of the building as possible.

• Demolition has begun on the hotel

Council Leader, Councillor Bella Sankey, said: “We of course want to save as much of this iconic, heritage building as possible and have tasked our contractors to do this.

“As many original features as possible will be set aside for reuse or for moulds / copying.

“A 3D scan of the whole exterior of the building has been carried out, and we will be taking photos regularly to hopefully allow us to replicate the original features.

“We are in contact with Historic England and will continue to work closely with them.”

Meanwhile, local businesses say three days of road closures have seriously affected trade.

Seb Cole, shop owner, said: "So we were shut from when it happened on Saturday evening, we've only just got back into the shop now.

"We've lost about three days of trade but also we're now behind on our wholesale as well because we produce wholesale ice cream in our kitchen here and obviously without the access it has set us back."