Our latest collection of hotel and venue news updates starts as usual in London: The Mondrian Shoreditch Hotel is to be rebranded a Virgin Hotel from 1st August. It will be the 17th property in Virgin Hotels Collection and its first in London. The hotel which opened in 2021 has 120 bedrooms and two meeting rooms including a Ballroom seating up to 140 delegates theatre style.
To celebrate its 200th birthday, the National Gallery in London is planning new look events spaces in 2025 including a newly redesigned Lecture Theatre which will accommodates up to 322 delegates plus a new Supporters' House room seating up to 100 delegates with its own restaurant, bar, private dining room, lounge and event space and with private access from Trafalgar Square.
Planning permission has just been secured for a new hotel in London. The Resident Farringdon will be located at 1-8 Long Lane, with 128 bedrooms, a restaurant, bar and café plus retail spaces at ground level. It is expected to open in 2027 and will be the fifth London site for the brand.
Moving to the South West: SeaSpace is Cornwall’s first coastal aparthotel and is set to open in Newquay in October. It will feature 56 apartments including studios plus two and three-bedroom fully equipped apartments. Leisure facilities include a 19-metre pool plus a gym with Watergate Bay nearby for surfing enthusiasts.
Butcombe Boutique Inns group has just launched in the UK. The George Inn, Norton St Philip with 13 bedrooms in Bath and The Swan Inn, Rowberrow, with nine bedrooms also in Somerset are the initial members of the grouping but it is anticipated this could rise to 25 inns in total.
Travelodge has just opened its seventh hotel in Bristol – Bristol Abbey Wood Travelodge has 85 bedrooms and is located within easy access to the M4, M5 and Bristol city centre.
The Pig Group has just opened The Pig and The Village Pub, located in the former Barnsley House in the Cotswolds village of Barnsley. It has 18 bedrooms and suites plus a village pub. This brings the total number of ‘Pigs’ in the UK to nine by our reckoning.
In the Midlands: Aston Marina events and conference facilities plan to build a 35-bedroom hotel on its 42-acre site on the outskirts of Stone in Staffordshire to capitalize on the visitor attractions in the area which includes Alton Towers. However, it’s understood the development is unlikely to be built until after 2027.
Amalfi White is a two AA Rosette restaurant situated in town of Melbourne in South Derbyshire. They have just launched new 1st floor events space in the Ballroom which will accommodate up to 80 delegates theatre style.
In Wales: The 22-bedroom Cae Mor Hotel in Llandudno has just completed a major refurbishment of all 22 bedrooms and added a luxury fine-dining restaurant. The hotel is located next door to Venue Cymru, business events and conference centre.
In Manchester and the North West: Maldron Hotel Manchester Cathedral Quarter has just opened in central Manchester – the second Maldron branded hotel in the city. It has 188 bedrooms, a Grain and Grill Restaurant, two ground floor meeting rooms seating 12 and 16 delegates plus a gym. It is located a few minutes’ walk from Manchester Victoria Station and Manchester Arena.
Leonardo Hotels have acquired Hotel Gotham in central Manchester. Hotel Gotham was formerly the headquarters of the Midland Bank. It has 60 bedrooms, a restaurant and a rooftop private bar and members’ club. Leonardo Hotels will be retaining the Hotel Gotham name in the short term.
Dakota Hotels have published plans to build a new hotel at MIX MANCHESTER – a major science and innovation campus planned at Manchester Airport. The hotel will have 154 bedrooms, a bar and brasserie-style grill, meeting and events space, plus a dedicated shuttle service to and from the airport terminals. The planned opening date is 2026. We will monitor its progress.
JD Wetherspoon has lodged plans to create a new hotel in Southport. They plan to convert the three floors above The Sir Henry Segrave pub in Lord Street into a 30-bedroom hotel. It was previously office space. The pub is named after the man who raised the land-speed record to 152mph on Southport's Birkdale Sands in 1926.
In York: The Principal York hotel in the centre of York is shortly to rebrand as the Milner York Hotel – named after William Milner, who was the York Station foreman during World War II.
The Elmbank York Tapestry Collection by Hilton, has become the Tapestry Collection’s second hotel in the UK and it follows the recent completion of a £5million renovation with 62 newly designed bedrooms plus a new restaurant and bar. Centrally located, it is a five-minute drive from York Racecourse and Jorvik Viking Centre.
In Newcastle on Tyne: Plans have been published to convert Metropolitan House in the centre of Newcastle on Tyne which is currently unoccupied into a 21-bedroom boutique hotel with rooftop garden. We will monitor developments.
Finally in Scotland: A new boutique hotel with ten rooms is set to open in July in Ayrshire. It will sit directly above the Taj Bar & Kitchen in Prestwick , and will aim to ‘add a new dimension of luxury to Prestwick's hospitality scene’.