Clifftop mansion once owned by holiday camp king Billy Butlin hits the market for £2.7million
A clifftop mansion once owned by holiday camp king Billy Butlin and since converted into apartments with beach chalets has hit the market for £2.7 million.
The White House, which was built in the Primrose Valley in Yorkshire in the 1930s, was home to founder of Butlins Sir Billy, who made a multi-million pound fortune after starting out as a boy helping his mother sell gingerbread at travelling fairgrounds and going on to transform the traditional British seaside holiday for the masses.
Sir Billy bought the impressive art deco property in 1945, when he was so taken with the tiny Yorkshire resort of Filey that he set up his third Butlin’s there and bought the nearby White House, often hosting parties for friends.
After his retirement to Jersey in 1969, his death in 1980, and the Filey Butlin’s camp’s eventual closure in 1983, the 10-bedroomed house fell into disuse and was empty when the current owners bought it in 2009.
The White House (pictured) that was once owned by holiday camp king Billy Butlin and has hit the market for £2.7 million
A kitchen in one of the apartments. The house has been converted into two spacious apartments with four beach chalets nearby – two at the rear and two on the beachfront – and a games room
A bedroom in one of the apartments. The entire White House is now for sale by informal tender, with offers to Nicholsons of Filey by November 1
Filey is a short walk along the beach (pictured). Then, heading south, there is a scenic walk to Flamborough Head, tides permitting
Sir Billy (pictured at the top of the Post Office tower, London in 1964), born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1899, had a turbulent childhood. His parents to William and Bertha Butlin separated before he was seven, and he moved to England with his mother.
Brothers Mark and David Hunter and their friend Gary Mason, all from Filey, restored the rundown property, converting it into two spacious apartments with four beach chalets nearby – two at the rear and two on the beachfront – and a games room. There is also a private wrap-around terrace and access to the beach.
Filey is a short walk along the beach. Then, heading south, there is a scenic walk to Flamborough Head, tides permitting.
The house has been functioning as individual holiday rentals – but now the whole place is for sale for £2.7 million by informal tender, with offers to Nicholsons of Filey by November 1.
Although holiday camps such as Warner’s existed in one form or another before Sir Billy opened his first, he was the entrepreneur who turned the ‘Hi De Hi’ camps into a national institution.
After Sir Billy’s retirement to Jersey, his death in 1980 and the Filey Butlin’s camp’s eventual closure in 1983, the 10-bedroomed house (pictured) fell into disuse and was empty when the current owners bought it in 2009
Perched high on a Yorkshire clifftop (the view from the top of the house pictured), the property was the base for 35 years for Sir Billy, who made a multi-million pound fortune after starting out as a lad helping his mum sell gingerbread at travelling fairgrounds
A living area in one of the apartments. Sir Billy used to often host friends at the White House before he retired and moved to Jersey
Sir Billy (pictured at Winchester house in 1950) spent five years following his grandmother’s family fair around the country where his mother sold gingerbread, and he quickly learnt the ropes about commerce and entertainment
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1899, Sir Billy had a turbulent childhood. His parents to William and Bertha Butlin separated before he was seven, and he moved to England with his mother.
He spent the next five years following his grandmother’s family fair around the country where his mother sold gingerbread, and he quickly learnt the ropes about commerce and entertainment.
When he was twelve his mother emigrated to Canada, leaving him in the care of his aunt for two years. Once settled in Toronto, his mother invited him to join her there.
In Canada, Butlin struggled to fit in at school and soon left for a job in the Toronto department store Eaton’s. In World War One he enlisted as a bugler in the Canadian Army.
After the war, he returned to England, bringing only £5 with him. Investing £4 of that money to hire a stall travelling with his uncle’s fair, he discovered that giving his customers a better chance to win brought more custom in, and he quickly became successful.
One stall became several, including prominent locations such as Olympia in London, and he soon was able to purchase other fairground equipment and started his own travelling fair.
The White House (pictured) was built in the Primrose Valley in Yorkshire on a clifftop near Filey in the 1930s, when Sir Billy fell in love with the area
A bathroom in one of the apartments. Brothers Mark and David Hunter and their friend Gary Mason, all from Filey, restored the rundown property
A bedroom in one of the apartments. The house has been functioning as individual holiday rentals since its restoration
By 1927, he had opened a static fairground in Skegness. Over the next 10 years he expanded his fairground empire, all the time harbouring an idea to increase the number of patrons in his Skegness site by providing accommodation.
His first holiday camp opened at Skegness in 1936, followed by Clacton two years later. Plans to open a third in Filey were cut short by the outbreak of World War Two.
He used the war to his advantage, persuading the MoD to complete the Filey Holiday Camp and construct two more camps in Ayr and Pwllheli as training camps, which he reclaimed when the war was over.
In the post-war boom, he soon opened four more camps at Mosney, Bognor Regis, Minehead and Barry Island as well as buying hotels in Blackpool, Saltdean and Cliftonville.
The Canadian who offered Brits ‘a wealthy man’s vacation at a price of the ordinary individual’s purse’ – and helped launched the careers of Ringo Starr, Julie Andrews and Catherine Zeta-Jones
Billy Butlin’s (pictured) holiday empire was sold to an American company in 1972 for £40million
Billy Butlin, a Canadian born in 1899 in South Africa, first had the idea for his holiday camps between the wars.
He noticed that in Britain it always rained, and yet families were locked out of their dismal boarding houses during the day and had absolutely nothing to do.
‘Everyone has a right to leisure’, he insisted, not only the idle rich, who anyway could always escape the downpours by travelling abroad.
With a fortune made from being the exclusive European agent for the newly invented funfair dodgems, Billy invested £18 million (in today’s money) in a 48-acre camp site in Skegness.
The resort opened in 1936, and the season was fully booked — just as well, as Billy had purchased 16,000 pairs of roller skates.
Advertisements promised ‘the diversions of the wealthy man’s vacation at a price within reach of the ordinary individual’s purse’ — and Billy aimed his all-inclusive package holidays at clerical workers, shop assistants, factory under-managers and, had he but known it, freelance literary journalists of modest means.
A contemporary brochure announced that, ‘You can just quietly sit on your own veranda smoking your evening pipe’.
What distinguished Butlin’s was the sense of community created by Bathing Belle pageants, Knobbly Knees contests, and prizes for the Loudest Snorer, Shiniest Bald Head and Bonniest Baby. Having made the final of the Glamorous Grandmother competition no fewer than 23 times, 76-year-old Alice Matthews ‘became a local celebrity in her home town of Leeds’.
Merriment was maintained by the famous Redcoats, in their smart jackets and white flannels.
The Redcoats, among whom were numbered Roy Hudd, Des O’Connor and Dave Allen, though not Frankie Howerd who was advised by Billy to ‘find a different job’, also shifted pianos and marked out football pitches.
Iconic: The Butlins camp in Bognor Regis, West Sussex
The success of Skegness led, in 1938, to a resort at Clacton, which boasted vast heated pools and cascades.
The camps were requisitioned during the war to become Pioneer Corps training depots. A sign went up: ‘Will re-open when finished with Hitler.’ Pwllheli was developed by the Admiralty following the evacuation of Dunkirk. Altogether 250,000 men trained at Butlin’s, and the armed forces saved a mint not having to construct their own barracks.
The holiday trade resumed in 1947, but the North Welsh were sceptical about Pwllheli. They thought ‘people who go to holiday camps will drop orange peel and play the ukulele all over quiet mountains’.
When Billy wanted to open a camp at Mosney, near Dublin, the Catholic clergy complained, denouncing Butlin’s as ‘alien and undesirable’.
The postwar period was perhaps Butlin’s heyday.
Resorts uniquely provided ramps for disabled ex-servicemen and the civilians injured in bombing raids. The chalets were popular with newly-weds and courting couples, who could at last get away from living on top of their parents. Honeymooners were given an alarm clock as a wedding present. Billy was personally invited to around 200 weddings a year. A telegram was always sent instead.
By 1948, 200,000 families were failing to get a booking, so six further camps were opened, and there were nine by 1960, including those at Bognor, Barry Island, Ayr and Minehead, which was built on 165 acres of marsh. The plan was that there’d be a Butlin’s camp within a hundred miles of ‘every major urban centre’.
The entertainment was always lavish. Gracie Fields drew a crowd of 10,000 fans when she performed at Skegness.
Laurel and Hardy in person judged a beauty pageant. Ringo Starr did two seasons at Pwllheli, where he was visited by Lennon and McCartney. ‘He went straight from Butlin’s to the Beatles.’ Julie Andrews, when aged 13, ‘brought the house down’ at Clacton, and in 1979, Catherine Zeta-Jones ‘was a finalist in the Junior Star Trail’.
The Queen visited Pwllheli in 1963, and Billy was knighted the following year. In 1965, however, bookings fell. People now owned cars and could take the ferry to the Continent, where there were duvets, bidets and garlic.
By 1972 and the beginning of cheap air package tours to the Balearics, Butlin’s was sold off to the Rank Organisation. Sir Billy retired to Jersey. He died in 1980 and ‘his holiday empire was gradually dismantled’.
In 2000, Bourne Leisure purchased the business and saw that ‘short breaks were the key to attracting middle-income visitors’.
Skegness, Bognor and Minehead had ‘a major facelift’, and consultations were held with Mumsnet to see what modern families wanted. The Redcoats’ red coats were re-designed by Zandra Rhodes and Jeff Banks.
Butlin’s is now the antidote to airport security checks and frustrations. Sir Billy’s original motto was Shakespearean: ‘Our true intent is all for your delight.’
- By Roger Lewis for the Daily Mail. Taken from THE NATION’S HOST by Kathryn Ferry (Viking £20)
