Art deco treasure the place the younger David Bowie performed and the Queen visited is now ‘eyesore’ after builders purchased it for £1 and ‘forgot about’ it

It was once at the heart of a thriving holiday hotspot, with its clifftop views spanning as far as France attracting visitors such as the late Queen Elizabeth and David Bowie.

Now, the Winter Gardens in Ventnor, Isle of Wight, has been branded an ‘eyesore’ after property developers ‘bought and forgot’ about it.

The celebrated art deco building was purchased by Hambrough Group in 2011 and the firm promised it would carry out a multi-million pound revamp.

But 14 years on, it has become an ‘tragic’ sight in the town and good samaritans have been taking matters into their own hands by cleaning up broken glass on the site.

At the peak of the Isle of Wight’s holiday boom, the Winter Gardens’ resident band, The Lower Third, featured none-other than David Bowie, when he was known as Davy Jones.

While on Queen Elizabeth II‘s visit to the Isle of Wight with the Duke of Edinburgh in July 1965, the late monarch planted a fir tree at the eastern end of Ventnor Park before visiting the art deci.

When Hambrough bought the property for £1 from the council, they said they would create two restaurants, 20 hotel rooms, and a multi-use cinema and theatre on the site by 2012.

Instead, they just carried out the initial repairs they were legally obliged to do and have left the building to fall into disrepair since.

The staff member overseeing the project at the council left their job, and it was then ‘forgotten about’ according to local councillor Ed Blake.

The contract which would have allowed the council to repurchase the building ran out in 2015, and Cllr Blake has warned Hambrough to expect action unless they transform the building, or sell it to someone who will.

Last month, Ventnor Town Councillor Mark Jefferies and litter picker Wendy Marshall spent four hours clearing glass at the site.

While grateful for their help, Cllr Blake, who represents Ventnor and St Lawrence, said ‘it should not fall to them to have to clear a private site’.

Should no action be taken, he has warned he will pursue enforcement action requiring the owner to deal with the poor state of a building.

He said: ‘I have already started discussions with officers about this process as an option.

‘There is an ever growing list of serious purchasers that contact me on a regular basis about acquiring the Winter Gardens with a vast range of intended uses.

‘Personally, I mourn the loss of the invaluable community space.’

In 2022, the building’s roof was damaged during Storm Beatrice, and last year the Hambrough Group said it was still waiting on the insurance company to pay out.

‘We certainly do not want the building to look the way it does. We want it to be used by the community’, a spokesperson said at the time.

Cllr Jeffries said Hambrough Group have invited him and Ms Marshall for afternoon tea in the coming weeks as a thank you for spending hours clearing away the broken glass from the site.

But the councillor, who was born and bred in Ventnor, Isle of Wight, said he just wants to see action being taken.

‘I feel quite saddened because I remember using it a lot, we used to have concerts on down there and wrestling down there, it was thriving there,’ he said.

‘I’m really sad about it.’

He noted that passers by during the clean-up said they were gutted about the state of the site, too.

‘They were all commenting on it, ‘It’s such a shame’ and ‘The council should buy it back,’ he added.

‘The renovations they were meant to have got done on the list, to do with the lease, was actually done but obviously what they proposed to do was make extra hotel rooms and stuff like that never did get done.’

Locals described the situation as a ‘tragedy’, with Jane Bateman saying the ‘iconic’ building should be brought back to its ‘former glory’.