Selsdon Park Hotel is a luxury hotel located in

Selsdon Selsdon is an area in South-East London, England, located in the London Borough of Croydon, in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Prior to 1965 it was in the historic county of Surrey. It is located south of Coombe and Addiscombe, west o ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is housed in a

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

History

Selsdon Park passed through several private owners until 1924 when Allan Doble Sanderson bought the house and the accompanying of land for £13,000.Official website
/ref> In 1924 the Victorian country residence was converted into a 24-bedroom hotel which opened in 1925, and the first

lift (elevator) An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They ar ...

was installed. Between 1927 and 1930, the East Wing was built and in 1935 the West Wing was added. At the same time, the whole of the building was covered in brick to give a

Neo-Jacobean The Jacobethan or Jacobean Revival architectural style is the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the English Renaissance (15 ...

appearance. In 1929, the golf course was added. It was designed by J. H. Taylor, five-time

British Open The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

champion. In 1960, Basil Sanderson took over the running of the hotel from his parents, where upon he employed a young and up and coming hotel manager called John Aust. John Aust was instrumental in turning the hotel into one of the best hotels in the country. Improvements and additional rooms were added to the hotel, and in 1985 the leisure complex was completed at a cost of £1.5 million. The latest addition to the building, the Cambridge Wing, was finished in 1988 and has 25 bedrooms and a conference suite. On 13 March 1997,

Principal Hotel Company Principal Hotel Company is a British hotel and conference venue operator headquartered in Harrogate, England. History Principal Hotel Company advertises that it was established in 1898, as that is the year the oldest hotel in its chain, Kimpton F ...

purchased the De Vere Selsdon Estate and commenced with a £2.5 million refurbishment, including a new reception area, additional conference and banquet facilities and a business centre. Furthermore in 2020 the hotel undertook a further £1 million refurbishment to complete the hotel bedrooms and further meeting rooms to complete the multi-million pound refurbishment, having all of the hotel refurbishment between 2018 – 2020 including all public areas, meeting rooms and all 150 bedrooms. The hotel has a minor role in British political history as it was the venue for a meeting of the Conservative Party Shadow Cabinet before the 1970 parliamentary elections. At that meeting the party agreed on a
election manifesto
that was notably more ideologically free market than at any previous election after World War II. It gave rise to the expression Selsdon Man. The Conservative Party under Heath won the election, however, Heath failed to follow his election promises, eventually leading to his replacement by Margaret Thatcher.

Facilities

The Selsdon Estate possesses of parkland. It has 26 conference rooms and a leisure centre including indoor swimming pool. Dining facilities include the Cedar restaurant, Phoenix grill and bar, and a terrace. The grounds include an 18-hole

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...

, two grass tennis courts, two all-weather

tennis courts A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles matches. A variety of surfaces can be u ...

, a jogging trail, a

boules ''Boules'' () is a collective name for a wide range of games similar to bowls and bocce (In French: jeu or jeux, in Croatian: boćanje and in Italian: gioco or giochi) in which the objective is to throw or roll heavy balls (called in France, ...

pitch, a

croquet Croquet ( or ; french: croquet) is a sport that involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through hoops (often called "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass playing court. Its international governing body is the Wor ...

lawn, and a putting green.

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External links

{{coord, 51.3391, -0.0615, display=title Hotels established in 1924 Hotels in London

History

Facilities

See also

References

External links