Built in 1807Worthing's First Hotel
Steyne Hotel, Worthing’s first, was built in 1807 by George Parsons. Built on the site of an old inn, and used, so we are led to believe, by smugglers. Local fishermen tell of the sunken fishing hamlet some half mile off the end of the pier, which used to be on a shingle bank and was destroyed by storms in the 1700s.
The hotel’s ballroom served as the town’s Assembly Rooms and played an important part in the fashionable social life of the resort. It has been suggested that the victory of Waterloo in 1815 was announced in the ballroom.
