Business News The Griffin Report


Once upon a time, Wolverhampton’s Park Hall Hotel and Spa was one of the finest buildings of its kind, but by 2011 its heyday had well and truly passed. Neglect was everywhere – however, a saviour was at hand in the form of businesswoman Angela Bir, who has spent an eye-watering £5m restoring Park Hall to its former glory. Chamberlink’s award-winning columnist Jon Griffin paid a visit find out how it has been given a new lease of life.


Historic hotel makes a comeback


It has played host to VIP guests as varied as David Bowie, Vera Lynn and Roger Moore, as well as Chelsea football stars – but by 2011 Wolverhampton’s Park Hall Hotel and Spa had fallen on distinctly hard times. The heating didn’t work, the


boiler room had broken down, the gardens were unkempt and some beds were even held up on bricks… it was the lowest point in the long and distinguished history of this impressive Georgian mansion. Seven years on, the historic


venue, once home to England’s first post-Reformation Catholic boarding school and later the residence of the fourth Earl of Dudley, is once again in the limelight following a painstaking £5m renovation programme which has given a new lease of life to an architectural landmark. As owner Angela Bir takes Chamberlink on a tour of this 18th Century gem set in five and a half acres, her pride in restoring the Grade II listed building back to its former glory is crystal clear. “We have spent £5m since 2011,


we initially estimated £1m and didn’t think that much money had to be pumped in. “When we bought it, the hotel


was in administration, the heating was broken, the boiler room had broken down, the beds were on bricks, we had to change them all. 14 or 15 of the rooms were closed. “We relaid all the gardens, the


spa was closed for a year. We very lovingly put every piece of the hotel together. In the first four months we lost £90,000 – it had been badly neglected. We did a big refurbishment of Anju’s Indian restaurant. It has been non-stop, 24 hours a day but the refurbishment is now complete.” Angela’s roots lie in the hotel


industry. Her father Balbir Chabra once owned the Chesford Grange Hotel at Kenilworth and she grew up in the trade. A part-qualified accountant, she later went into the nursing homes sector after owning the Falcon Hotel in Coventry and


New lease of life: The hotel’s owner Angela Bir


‘We have spent £5m since 2011, we initially estimated £1m and didn’t think that much money had to be pumped in’


later the Glebe at Barford. Her nursing homes enterprise, which trades under the Monarch Healthcare banner, has expanded to a group boasting 11 homes on 10 sites across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, employing 600 people. “In 1995 I went into nursing homes


in Stratford – I didn’t have a clue about managing nursing homes. I ended up in it by default and it was quite a culture shock for me. “But hotels are in my blood. This


was to be our dream investment.” Angela bought the Ramada Park Hall Hotel and Spa back in 2011 in


conjunction with her partner, the late Ranjit Singh Power, a Wolverhampton-based businessman with links to the commercial property sector. “It had been a hotel for at least


40 years. We have had people like Vera Lynn, David Bowie, Roger Moore, Chelsea FC, Brazil Under-21s football team, recently the Romanian Under-21s. “It has been a hard slog, but I


think having the right team around you is very important. For almost a year, I had to put nursing home aside – I have been on a treadmill.”


Today, the Park Hall Hotel’s rise


from the ashes of administration in 2011 is virtually complete – and Angela can point to annual rises in turnover to a projected figure for next year of £6m. “It is popular with corporate


visitors during the week and we are very busy at weekends with functions. We have 167 full and part-time staff. We have a team of 13 chefs on the premises, we do 150 to 200 weddings a year, we do a lot of Indian functions. We have six sales co-ordinators and three people just to do marketing. “Growth, year on year, has been


20 per cent. Our projected turnover next year is £6m. We got through 11 planning permissions between 2012 and 2014.”


June 2018 CHAMBERLINK 17


Picture by Jessica Brookes


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