chalcroft in £2.4m project to extend luxury hotel

31 March 2010

Luxury Norfolk hotel Congham Hall has enlisted local firm Chalcroft to build its reputation further by adding new kitchen and restaurant facilities, a new bedroom block and a fantastic new spa building.

Set in 30 acres of parkland, the elegant hotel was built in the 1780s by a wealthy King’s Lynn merchant and was, until its purchase in 1982, still a private family house.

Every year, hundreds of discerning guests visit the hotel, near Grimston, attracted by the chance to stay in a late Georgian manor house that retains many of the architectural features of this period such as the main staircase, portico and oriel windows.

Now, the owner of the hotel, the internationally-operating von Essen Hotels group, has asked Chalcroft to complete a £2.4m project to ensure that the visitor experience is further enhanced.

Acting as principal contractor, Chalcroft will expand the restaurant by creating a Bistro area with private dining facilities, construct new kitchen facilities and create an additional eight bedrooms.

The pièce de résistance of the project will be the creation of a luxurious new spa facility that will incorporate a swimming pool, gym, five treatment rooms, steam bath, overflow spa, sauna, samarium (a combination of steam room and sauna), monsoon showers and heated tile loungers.

Operations director Paul Morley commented: “Congham Hall has remained much the same throughout its lifetime, and so we are delighted to have been asked to help it expand and be ready for many more years to come.

“Through close liaison with the senior management, the hotel will remain operational for the entire duration, which means that we will be creating temporary kitchen and dining facilities.

“The new build structures, including the spa and new three-bedroom block, will be clad with timber, while the existing structures will be refurbished utilising existing materials such as local brick and clay pantiles.”

At the time of the conversion from private house to hotel, very little alteration to the main structure was necessary, the only additions being bathrooms and the restaurant.

During 1989, three new bedrooms were added to give 14 bedrooms in total and it was also around this time that the restaurant was extended from 30 to 50 covers, by the addition of the Orangery.

David Bennett from von Essen Hotels commented: “The work that is being undertaken will enable the hotel to become even more renowned, and therefore it was essential for us to choose a build partner that had the skills and experience to work on a heritage project such as this.

“We are delighted that working in close partnership with hotel management, Chalcroft has been able to demonstrate a full understanding of our requirements and that the company has devised a strategy that means the hotel will remain operational throughout the works.”