Hotel Bombed by IRA to Be Reconstructed

BRIGHTON, England — The Grand Hotel, partially demolished in an Irish Republican Army bomb attack that nearly killed Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, will be rebuilt at a cost of $9.6 million, its owners said.

Stuart Reed, managing director of DeVere Hotels, told a news conference last week, “We are going to bring back this grand old lady in a very elegant style.”

Five people were killed and 31 injured on Oct. 12, 1984, when the blast caused several floors to collapse in one section of the 120-year-old hotel, located on the beachfront of Brighton, a southern England resort. Thatcher, who was not hurt, and many of her Cabinet members were staying at the hotel during a Conservative Party conference.