Some of this week’s hotel and venue news items you may not have come across include:
New hotels on Dalata’s drawing board include properties in: Brighton, Liverpool and Manchester all expected to open next year plus a new hotel in London scheduled to open early 2024. In addition, the group is planning to open the Maldron Hotel Finsbury Park in London this summer with 192 bedrooms.
Hilton Brighton Metropole has just completed a £26million refurbishment. This includes the hotel’s 24 meeting and events suites plus the hotel’s public areas, lobby, restaurant and bar. The largest events space at the hotel will accommodate up to 3000 guests. The Hilton Brighton Metropole has 321 bedrooms plus a health club and indoor swimming pool. It is located on Brighton seafront next to the Brighton Centre and less than a mile from Brighton station.
Rudding Park Hotel in Harrogate has invested £50k in 12 new electric vehicle charging points. These will be available to the public with plans to introduce more in future. They will be powered from the Rudding Park Energy Centre.
Remaining in Harrogate - the Inn Collection Group, new owners of the 90-bedroom Hotel St George in the town, plan to rebrand the hotel as The Harrogate Inn. This will follow completion of a refurbishment which will see the addition of six new bedrooms.
Lucky Voice chain of karaoke bars in London has just opened its fifth venue – Lucky Voice Liverpool Street on Devonshire Square. A private karaoke room is available for corporate hire for a two-hour karaoke session or if that is not long enough the venue is bookable for the evening.
Launched in 2018, voco hotels has become IHG’s fastest-growing brand worldwide. The hotel group now has 46 open hotels with 55 hotels in the pipeline. Its next UK opening will be voco Lythe Hill Hotel and Spa launching in 2023. Formerly Lythe Hill Hotel in Surrey, the rebranded hotel is a Tudor-built property. It will feature 99 bedrooms plus an oak-beamed restaurant, gym and spa.
The Signet Collection has just opened its third site – The Barnsdale in Oakham, Rutland. Formerly known as Barnsdale Lodge, the hotel has been closed recently for a full refurbishment. The Barnsdale has 46 bedrooms and suites plus a restaurant, conservatory, courtyard garden, croquet lawns and a beauty salon. Barnsdale Lodge has a range of meeting and events spaces and will offer exclusive use. The Barnsdale is situated on a 30-acre site around a mile from Rutland Water.
Manchester brewers, Joseph Holt, has just acquired a site next to one of its pubs, the Cat and Lion in Stretton, Warrington. It has added 29 bedrooms plus a restaurant and bar and renamed the expanded operation as the Cat and Lion Country Pub and Hotel. The Cat and Lion was built in the 1600s as a coaching inn and still retains some of its original features with a hay hatch door and wooden beams.
Plans have been published to convert the former John Lewis department store at Birmingham's Grand Central into a new workplace and amenity destination. Proposals envisage repurposing the ground floor to complement the existing food and hospitality hub with extra hospitality space and flexible events space. Plans also include the addition of a rooftop garden lounge. It could be an interesting development from a meetings and events point of view. We will monitor its progress through the planning web and report back with any positive news. Grand Central, as its name suggests, is right in the heart of the city.
We finish this week’s roundup with brief details of two unusual properties with interesting events facilities which you may not be aware of:
The St Bride Foundation is a very interesting events venue in the centre of London. The Grade-II listed building just off Fleet Street was originally built as a printing school. Today the Foundation is home to the world’s largest library of printing, typography and graphic design. It also has a range of ground floor meeting and events spaces suitable for lectures to board meetings and conferences with a full catering package available. The largest room, Bridewell Hall, will seat up to 150 delegates. St Bride Foundation is a stone’s throw from Blackfriars and St Paul’s tube stations and is a two-minute walk from Thameslink.
Introducing Orchards Events Venue. It’s a purpose build venue with several multifunctional events and conference spaces with a capacity from 10 to 200 delegates, all set within 200 hectares of fruit orchards. Alongside the Orchards Events Venue is the Grade-1 listed Bradbourne House, a Tudor Queen Anne style building set in 20 acres of land. It has four meeting rooms, the largest seating 60 delegates cabaret style. Both venues are located in East Malling, Kent, close to Junction 4 of the M20 and a short walk from East Malling station.
We will be back next week with a selection of the week’s news items.