Broxbournebury Mansion in Hertfordshire could be converted into a luxury hotel. The privately owned building is the subject of a revised planning application, already approved by Broxbourne Borough Council, which has now been forwarded to the office of the deputy Prime Minister for consideration. If successful, the property will undergo a £16m conservation and restoration project.
The 37,000 sq ft, 16th century, Grade II-listed mansion is located on a Jack Nicklaus, 18-hole course at Hertfordshire Golf and Country Club.
St James Leisure, the project’s developer, plans to replace the sites tennis dome on the west side of the building with a three-storey hotel block to house 100 executive suites.
The firm also intends to make internal alterations to the mansion to accommodate 22 bedrooms, conference and function facilities and a spa. Jeremy Blake, principal at Tritton, says they will move the current gym and health suite that accommodate the mansion, to the lower level of the hotel block. The 17m swimming pool, alongside the mansion, will remain untouched.
The project’s architects Purcell Miller Tritton designed the alterations under the firms new hotel sector called Sustainable Heritage Hotels (Shh!), which was launched in 2007.
The hotel will be equipped with facilities to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and provide natural air conditioning through ground coupling. Other sustainable aspects include a bio boiler, solar water heating to provide 85 per cent of the hotel’s hot water, rainwater harvesting, grey water recycling and an urban drainage system with reed beds.
The re-designed scheme was described as “innovative and sensitive” by the developers due to of the proposal to excavate three metres down, lowering the hotel block into the ground, so it appears to be two storeys from the surface. The block will then be linked to the mansions lowest level underground, in order to allow access to the leisure facilities.
The original plans for the project, which were refused in March, received a negative response from especially English Heritage on the grounds that the conversion was an inappropriate development in the Green Belt and could harm the fabric of the building.
Although English Heritage no longer recommends that the plans be refused, its still maintains that the development will detract from the architectural and historical character of the building. If successful, the project is expected to be completed during 2010.
