Save the Three Cups

The building housing the Three Cups has been an important part of Lyme’s heritage for over 250 years.

The building housing the Three Cups has been an important part of Lyme’s heritage for over 250 years.

The front third of this Georgian building was erected in 1807.There is a Dating Stone ‘RC 1807’. RC represents Robert Cox a local builder.

The rear part of the building predates the front and when connected and accessible to the building next door (now Sea Tree House) was known as Hiscott’s Lodging and Boarding House. Here it is believed that Jane Austen stayed during her extended visits to Lyme in 1803 & 1804.These visits with her family were the inspiration for her later novel 'Persuasion' which features Lyme and the famous Cobb.

The Great Fire of 1844 destroyed the former Three Cups Hotel, Lyme's premier hotel at the time, which was located lower down Broad Street on the opposite side of the road.

About 1850 the Hotel transferred its business to this building and replaced Hiscott’s Boarding House.

It is interesting to note that the building had the distinctive Bow Windows and Columns before 1841 as this Bow Window is shown clearly on a Town Map of 1841.

Until 1908 it was known as THE CUPS when the owner Mrs Maria Garrod changed the name to the Three Cups. It is also interesting to note that the Three of Cups in a Tarot deck has the meaning of "The helping of others in a time of need", just what you'd expect from a hotel! It may also refer to the three caps of liberty, equality and fraternity!

It has always been a Boarding House or Hotel throughout its history with many famous people staying here including G.K. Chesterton, Alfred Lord Tennyson, H.W. Longfellow, Hilaire Beloc and JRR Tolkien. Again, anecdotal evidence points to the possibility of other famous people having stayed here over the years, culminating with Jeremy Irons, filming The French Lieutenant's Woman <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_French_Lieutenant's_Woman_(film)> in 1981. Charles Darwin's son, Francis, celebrates a visit to the town, if not the Three Cups, in and essay entitled "Rustic Sounds".

Tolkien and his younger brother Hilary used to stay here every summer with their guardian Father Francis Morgan, a Catholic Priest, between 1905 & 1910.During this period there is even a pencil sketch by Tolkien entitled ‘Lyme Regis Harbour from the Drawing Room of the Cups Hotel’ which he produced as a 14 year old in 1906. Tolkien then regularly returned to Lyme in the 1920’s & 1930’s with his young family and his now ageing guardian. This was during Tolkien’s most formative years relating to his popular books THE HOBBIT and the LORD OF THE RINGS Trilogy which contain many allusions and images relation to Lyme and its surroundings.

In the Second World War, during the nine months building up to the D-Day invasion of Europe, the Three Cups Hotel became the unofficial officer's mess for the American Army based in and around Lyme. On at least one occasion General Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the Three Cups and delivered an important briefing to his senior officers in the first floor lounge. The room with the iconic bow window.

With such a heritage this very special building must not be allowed to deteriorate further but also needs to retain, in some form, the essential role it has played as a Hotel over the last 250 years and hopefully over the next 250 years in the life of Lyme, its residents and visitors.!