The shabby building known as the Leopards' Plaza, which now houses families and individuals in single-room apartments, was once a hotel exclusively for black people.

Denny Richardson, president of the Leopards' Club, which owns the three-storey block on Brunswick Street, Pembroke, said it was about 25 years since it had served as a hotel, having been a "rooming house" since the early 1980s.

The yellow building is owned by the neighbouring Leopards' Club and has about 16 units, 11 of which are occupied. The units consist of just one bedroom and a bathroom ? but some are inhabited by entire families, including young children.

The Leopards' Club previously rented the property out to landlords who sublet the rooms. But for the past ten months it has had responsibility for the building.

Mr. Richardson said it would be fair to describe the units as low-cost housing. But one mother living there with her partner and two young daughters said the cost of a single unit was $1,400 a month ? far more than her family could afford.

Mr. Richardson said the club inherited the current tenants. "The tenants that are there are not the ones that we sought ourselves," he said. "It should have been handed over to us in a state of vacant possession. We wanted to take it and improve it but we wanted it empty."

He alleged that the majority of residents had not paid their rent for the best part of a year and had been asked to move out by the end of next month.

He said various Government departments and outside agencies have been told that children were living there in unfit conditions.

"There are children living there sleeping in the same room and sometimes in the same bed as adults. I have not been ecstatic about it at all. We said we'll try our best to make it as comfortable as possible and the (Bermuda) Housing Corporation asked them to register for future accommodation."

He added: "I dare anyone to say that I haven't acted with a social conscience."

The top floor of the Plaza was mostly destroyed by Saturday morning's fire and would take, in Mr. Richardson's estimation, hundreds of thousands of dollars to get back to its former "meagre state".

He said: "I would like to knock it down and put a building there. It could be a multi-purpose building with houses, offices and shops. We'd like to go ten storeys."

The Leopards' Club is a private members' club which was started 58 years ago by black people who weren't allowed to socialise in the white establishments where they worked.

Mr. Richardson said the Leopards' Plaza, which the club has owned for more than 40 years, was opened as a hotel for black people. "It was, in its glory days, a place in Bermuda for black people to stay. It was quite nice."