REOPENED AS A COCKTAIL BAR AND RESTAURANT ON 04/04/2016. It comprises of a large ground floor bar and lounge and a grand restaurant on the first floor with panoramic views over the Thames Estuary. Real ale in a bottle and craft beer is served The Grade II listed Royal Hotel in Southend is at the bottom of the High Street, overlooking Pier Hill. It stands at the corner of the busy pedestrianised High Street and Royal Terrace. It was one of the first buildings to be constructed when Southend was achieving its late 18th century status as a fashionable watering place, in the wake of the visit by Princess Caroline, Princess of Wales, who brought her daughter Charlotte to the town to improve her health. The Royal was under threat of demolition in the 1970s, but was saved by a wave of public opinion, to which Sir John Betjeman, the Poet Laureate and lover of Southend, led his valuable support.