I also think that the occupation of the Eastern Hill by a work under the command of Retreat Hill with a heavy Sea Battery would materially strengthen that side of St. George's, and cooperate in the defence of the Narrows.

¿ Col. Edward Fanshawe, RE, Report on the Defences of Bermuda, 1826

In a series of explosions that was heard round the world ¿ well, at least in St. George's and on the Internet ¿ a monumental, not to say monstrous, piece of Bermuda's tourism heritage imploded to the ground.

Often referred to as the "Club Med", who were but the last occupant, the East End hotel being actually built by the Holiday Inn, or perhaps it was Loews. As the major East End resort building, Club Med replaced the elegant St. George's Hotel, which in comparison was torn down almost by hand some decades ago.

As Dr. Ewart Brown, the Premier of Bermuda, pressed the button for the big bang, rather more quietly towards the other end of the island, the old Sonesta Beach was in its last stages of demolition.

Two 1960s eyesores removed in one week: good going for the obliteration of some of the unlikeable heritage of the hotel building boom of the 1960s and 1970s. A columnist in the Bermuda Sun listed some other structures that could well, for our visual emancipation, follow those buildings into oblivion.

Unfortunately, the best of the old hotels are long gone. The Hamilton burnt down and the St. George demolished, while the only Art Deco hotel in Bermuda, the Castle Harbour, has also been removed from the landscape. One wonders what records, if any, were made of these fine structures before their demise.

The best image, to my mind, of the Club Med implosion was one that showed the dust clearing from the downed structure, but appearing through the mist of dirt was the great six-inch gun that once adorned the front door of the hotel.

One shot from that gun across the bows of Fort St. Catherine would have ruined the eardrums of the onlookers on the roof of the Keep. The concussion would have broken most of the windows in the surrounding countryside to boot. As far as big bangs go, the field still belongs to the artillery, as "The Gunners" round the corner in the RA Club would undoubtedly agree.

The photograph also suggests that the artillery heritage at the site, comprising Forts Victoria and Albert, has survived the implosion, though Victoria was severely damaged in the original building of the hotel. This week and next, I will review those two fortifications, which are major monuments in Bermuda's World Heritage inventory.

Fort Albert was a product of the major refortification of Bermuda that began with the establishment of the Dockyard at the West End in 1809. In his review of the defences of the island in 1828, the Duke of Wellington, then Master General of Fortifications, noted that the "objects to be attained by this Work are to direct the fire from Seven heavy Guns on Traversing Platforms to be mounted on two of its sides upon the Ship Channel to command the Southern approaches to Fort St. Catherine and to afford collateral assistance to the other Works of the position".

The position was that of Retreat Hill centred on Fort Victoria, supported by Fort George and the Western Redoubt (known to night-clubbers of old as the "Gunpowder Cavern") and the Eastern Redoubt, the last renamed in 1841 after Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria.

The only plan record that survives of the first phase of Fort Albert is preserved in a sketch of the forts at Bermuda made by Lieut. Frederick Prime, an American spy, in 1852. The drawing shows that the fort was constructed to the Duke's specifications, but in addition, it had two eight-inch howitzers and two ten-inch mortars, thus incorporating the three types of artillery of the day, the cannon (for low level and long-range), the howitzer (for higher level, shorter range) and the mortar (for high level, short range, for "plunging fire" again the unprotected decks of ships).

The fort was constructed of Bermuda stone, with some details in the harder limestone, probably carved at the dockyard, and had a deep ditch with reverse fires and a "Keep" for housing the officers and gunners.

In 1865, Fort Albert was modernised for four ten-inch Rifled Muzzle Loaders, taken from the site in the late 1950s and emplaced at the new "tourist attraction" of Fort St. Catherine, where similar guns of the period had been tossed overboard, possibly in World War Two (they remain there on the rocks washed by the sea to this day).

By the beginning of the 1900s, those guns were obsolete, but the range of the new weapons also made Forts Albert and St. Catherine redundant, as the great 9.2-inch rifles at Fort Victoria and the six-inch ones at Alexandra Battery had double the range of the old guns.

When Club Med took over the Holiday Inn property, Forts Albert and Victoria were included in the arrangement. To their credit, funds were allocated for the partial restoration of Fort Albert, which much enhanced its chance of survival into the present day.

It is hoped, as they have apparently indicated and have done elsewhere, that the new developers of the hotel will find ways to incorporate this heritage into the new resort, to the benefit of all.

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Dr. Edward Harris, MBE, JP, FSA, Bermudian, is the Executive Director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum. This article represents his opinions and not necessarily those of persons associated with the Museum. Comments can be sent to drharrislogic.bm or by telephone to 332-5480.