HOTEL REVIEW


Drayton Manor Tamworth


Words: Matt Turner Photography: © Ashley Carr


Architect John Pass’ last project before retirement has been a 13-year labour of love to bring a new hotel to the grounds of a manor house he has known since childhood.


100 MARCH / APRIL 2013 WWW.SLEEPERMAGAZINE.COM


D


rayton Manor has been a labour of love for its architect John Pass. He grew up in Whittington, just six miles from the park, and fondly remembers childhood trips there in the 1950s. More than half a century later, the


£20m, 150-room Drayton Manor Hotel, is the last project Pass has completed before retirement. His practice, John Pass Associates, based in Warwick, was originally


briefed on the hotel in 1998 and he has devoted much of the past 13 years to its development. The original plan was to build an 86-guestroom hotel with a leisure


centre. The design team had to overcome sensitive issues concerning the proposed hotel site being on Green Belt land. Many of the trees in the area – some planted 300 years ago by previous landowners the Peel family, others by the current owners of Drayton Manor, the Bryan family – were subject to Tree Preservation Orders in place. Lichfield District Council approved original planning application in 2003 but a full planning inquiry led to many additional conditions being imposed on the height of the hotel, the building materials, and protection of the trees and other plants. Pass’ original designs changed before the hotel eventually went


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