Georgian hotel opens in Buxton 17 years after work begins

02 October 2020

A luxury hotel and spa has finally opened in Buxton, Derbyshire, 17 years after work began.

Buxton Crescent was built in the 1780s by the fifth Duke of Devonshire as the centrepiece of a Georgian spa development.

The Grade I listed building fell into disrepair and in 2003 work began to turn it into a hotel and tourist attraction.

The original £32m budget went up to £70m after developers faced "just about every difficulty you could" the BBC reported.

Buxton Crescent hotel has 81 bedrooms, a spa and three pools, including a refurbished Victorian thermal pool filled with heated Buxton mineral water.

Its operators, Ensana, said: "The hotel opening will revive the wellness traditions of this historic spa town."

It also claims the hotel will offer 140 permanent jobs and benefit the local economy by contributing more than £4.5 million a year.

The redevelopment of Buxton Crescent, jointly owned by Derbyshire County Council and High Peak Borough Council, faced delays from the start.

Planning permission was granted in 2010 after a seven-year legal dispute concerning protection of the Buxton spring was resolved.

The multi-million pound project then had financial issues when one of the investors, the East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA), was disbanded.

In 2017 developer Trevor Osborne said: "We have had just about every difficulty you could have with a building project like this."

Rotten timbers and the discovery of 23 springs were among the physical challenges faced.