OLD parts of the Cliff Hotel are being carefully salvaged and recycled as the former iconic building is demolished.

The 130-year-old hotel is slowly disappearing from the landscape on the Marine Parade in Dovercourt at the same time the hotel part of it's replacement has gone on the market.

The new 61-bed hotel will be advertised as a freehold or leasehold by Carter Jonas with the chance it could be sold or rented to a hotelier.

But so far, owner Carl Richardson says there has been limited interest.

He said: "We are two thirds of the way through the demolition, it's being done very slowly and carefully.

"A lot has been salvaged - the wood, bricks, roof tiles, everything we can.

"All the metal is being recycled and all wiring, all that hasn't been pinched by intruders.

"You think it all ends up in a rubbish heap somewhere but so much is being reused and will end up in other places on other projects.

"The dancefloor was recycled - there was some amazing wood in there."

The work is expected to take up until Christmas to complete before the 20 new flats and new hotel can be built.

Pulling down the historic hotel was controversial when plans were first announced, but Mr Richardson said the work has made even more convinced it was the best thing to do.

He added: "I'm so pleased I made the decision to close it and not try to refurbish it.

"The costs would have been astronomical and uneconomical without question.

"Parts of the structure are in such bad decay and parts would have collapsed in time - it was really bad."

The Cliff Hotel was built in the 1860s, then in the 1880s it was taken over and refurbished as the Cliff Hotel Pavilion with a ballroom, lounge, saloon bar and billiard room.

But the 27-bed hotel closed in January 2017 - it then became a magnet for vandals and thieves.

The building was due to undergo a complete refurbishment and internal remodelling as part of a major investment.

But a survey looking into the current state of the building said “many years of neglect and lack of maintenance” have made it commercially unfeasible to refurbish the building.