
Oxford aparthotel plans for former cinema approved
Cllr Ed Turner, the council's finance and asset management chief, said the authority's approval of the plans was an "exciting milestone" for the project."This regeneration will revitalise the area, provide much-needed accommodation relieving pressure on family homes, and create a dedicated community space.""I look forward to seeing more detailed plans emerge as the team moves forward," he said.
Andrew Heselton, from Marick Real Estate, added: "We are pleased to achieve this important milestone and look forward to developing the design, securing third-party agreements, and procuring our construction partner for this scheme prior to commencing the works in early 2026."The aparthotel will be operated by Staycity Group under their lifestyle Wilde brand, whilst the community space is being developed in partnership with Makespace Oxford.Odeon's lease of the building ran out in September.It said it had been "truly proud" to serve cinemagoers and "bring years of movie magic to the community".It opened as the Ritz Cinema in 1936 operated by Union Cinemas, and went through several owners over the decades before becoming an Odeon in 2000.
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Telegraph
3 days ago
- Telegraph
The £1,000-a-night hotel is here to stay – and I know why
Oscar Wilde once said that 'a fool is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing'. As a hotelier, these are words that have remained close to my heart throughout my career. Almost 30 years ago I dined at Chez Nico at Ninety Park Lane, where Nico Landelis – then one of the most celebrated chefs in the world – had been brought into one of the most expensive restaurant sites in the city by Sir Rocco Forte to create a destination restaurant at the Grosvenor House Hotel. This was the first time a celebrity chef had been brought into a hotel space in London; Marco-Pierre White, Heston Blumenthal, Angela Hartnett, Marcus Waring et al would soon make similar journeys, but Nico was the trailblazer. A meal for two at Chez Nico cost a smidgen under £400, which was a king's ransom back then. Friends the next day wanted to know all about my experience and several asked how I felt about shelling out so much cash on 'just' a meal. I was delighted to admit to them that I was just fine about it; indeed the truth was that I would happily have paid more. I had just enjoyed the best meal of my life, a dream-like epicurean evening, and by those metrics it offered tremendous 'value' to me. Price, however, has now become impossible to ignore. Luxury dining in hotels and indeed high-end hotels themselves have become increasingly pricey over the past 30 years; in London the £1,000-a-night barrier is regularly breached – and the real change has happened since Covid. So what is driving this price rise, and can value still be found at the top of the market? The people All luxury is created by people: talented, highly skilled individuals. At the very best hotels we need an army of wonderful, dedicated and able colleagues to create the magic. At The Goring we have only 69 bedrooms (making us one of the smallest of London's great hotels ) but we employ just short of 200 staff members to deliver the high levels of traditional service which our guests expect from us. Over the past few years the cost of employing the very best people has risen sharply, much more quickly than any other period in my 40-year career. Indeed, in the last five years alone, wage costs have risen between 30-40 per cent. We seek out the finest staff we can find because we know that the greatest asset of any hotel is its people. In London many of our industry's greatest waiters, chefs, barmen and front-of-house staff have returned back to their homes abroad following changes in freedom of movement laws. The result is a much smaller pool of potential staff, which has led to significant increases in pay, all of which ultimately ends up in the price mix. The surroundings At the luxury end of hospitality only the best will do – and that means everything you see around you in a hotel. At The Goring the silks on the walls are woven for us by Gainsborough – silk-makers to palaces across Europe, great houses in America (including The White House) and high-net worth families across the globe. Our wallpapers are hand-painted bespoke designs by Fromental; some are even hand-embroidered in silk over the painting. Each bedroom has individually made furniture from great British furniture makers: Linley, Gosling and Manbourne. All of these suppliers are luxury brands themselves; all have experienced huge price increases, with the costs of their raw materials and skilled workforces far outweighing headline inflation increases. Luxury hotels endeavour to supply the best that money can buy, so that guests will experience the intangible 'value' of their stay that Wilde identified. Think of your bed, with its crisply (and expensively) laundered 800 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, or those piles of bright white towels and all those unctuous soaps, creams, shampoos and body washes. (And when it comes to the bathrooms themselves, these have to be exquisitely decorated havens of cleanliness and recuperation. Some hotels spend £75-£100,000 on a single wet-room refurbishment.) Next time you sit in a luxury hotel's dining room or bar, take a moment to notice the glassware, the china and the cutlery. The china will almost certainly be of a bespoke design, costing upwards of £40 a plate or £50 for a cup and saucer. Alas, all china and glassware chips, and the finer it is the more easily it damages. When it comes to cutlery, a local restaurant is likely to use stainless-steel cutlery. However, in luxury hotels all the flatware is at the very least silver-plated and polished every day before use. Just another small detail in creating a really wonderful hotel experience. And don't forget the 'consumables': some cuts of beef rose by over 30 per cent last year; chocolate prices have never been higher; the same goes for champagnes and wines. The business Business rates continue to penalise physically large businesses such as hotels located in towns and cities. These rates can amount to hundreds of thousands, even millions of pounds before we even open our doors. As well as the increasing cost of staff wages we now have to add in the recent National Insurance increase to that equation. Then there's the 20 per cent VAT we have to factor into all our prices (one of the highest rates of VAT on accommodation in Europe). The removal of VAT relief for overseas visitors has led to many of them swerving London for cities such as Paris, Rome and Milan for their holiday shopping trips. This loss of high net worth guests affects many British businesses including hotels, restaurants, taxis and luxury shopping (though the big luxury shopping brands may make up some of their losses in the other European cities) . Energy prices have soared; gas costs have followed suit. Like most businesses we have seen eye watering increases in our various insurances over the last five years. The costs of our refuse, collection and recycling only goes one way. The move to be more sustainable as a business sector is vital but we must accept that it comes at a financial cost for all of us. Much of the international business incoming to London and the United Kingdom is reserved at our properties by travel advisors across the world, particularly in America. These are vital partners for all luxury hotels. However, they typically charge between 10 and 20 per cent commission on their reservations, which is yet another cost of doing business in the hospitality world. Finally I want to mention another major cost: investment. No hotel can stand still; all require constant and substantial expenditure. Most bedrooms are 'soft-refurbished' every seven or so years, which means all carpets and fabrics are replaced and the room completely redecorated. Every 20 or so years a full redesign of rooms tends to be programmed into the hotel life-cycle. Running a luxury hotel is a complex business, with many expensive moving parts. However, I have always found them a joy to work in – and should always be a joy for our guests to stay in. Hopefully, despite the cost, they will perceive the value of what they experience, just as I did at Chez Nico all those years ago.


The Sun
30-07-2025
- The Sun
Popular seaside town with stunning castle & Tudor streets announces shopping centre closure ahead of £20m makeover
A UK seaside resort with a stunning castle and Tudor streets is to officially close its shopping centre for a major revamp ahead of a £20m makeover. The North Yorkshire town, once dubbed a "social mobility coldspot", is hoping to reclaim its place as a "vibrant destination". 5 It was announced this week that Scarborough's Brunswick Centre will officially close on September 17, with redevelopment work beginning in the autumn. The site was bought by a developer in 2021 after a decline in footfall. Plans for its transformation include building an Odeon cinema and new food court at the site. The revamp of the town centre site is central to wider plans to regenerate Scarborough, which is affectionately known to locals as Scarbados. A spokesperson for Scarborough Group International (SGI), which owns the Brunswick Centre, said: "This is about more than buildings. "It's about reimagining the heart of the town and creating a place where people want to spend time." The announcement of the closure comes just months after North Yorkshire Council revealed £19.5m had been allocated to Scarborough as part of the government's Plan for Neighbourhoods scheme. 5 The authority said it had previously devised a "10-year vision document" following public consultation, which named improving the town centre and bus services as priorities. The plans for Brunswick Centre were officially approved in 2023, with the cinema expected to take up to 29,060 sq ft (2,700 sq m) of the Brunswick's almost 150,690 sq ft (14,000 sq m) of space. 5 Mark Jackson, project lead for SGI, said: "The closure of Brunswick is a major step forward, not just for the project, but for the wider regeneration of Scarborough. "While change can be disruptive in the short term, this marks the start of a much-needed transformation that will help the town centre match the strength of its visitor appeal." The seaside town attracted more than 23 million visits a year and "outperforms major cities in dwell time and year-round tourism", Mr Jackson added. As well as the cinema, the scheme is expected to see the redevelopment of the interior and exterior of the building, a multi-storey car park, refurbished shop fronts along Westborough and the opening of the facade with large glass panels to allow in more natural light. Incredible on stage footage shows thousands of Oasis fans going wild at sold out Wembley gig A North Yorkshire Council spokesperson said the project could help "uplift the whole area". They added: "It's very obvious when you visit Scarborough, particularly that part of the town, what a key role this building could hold in the revitalisation of this part of Scarborough." While the locals call it Scarbados, the Queen of the Coast – it has an ancient castle, spectacular cliffs, Tudor streets and two sandy beaches – there is a downside to living in Scarborough. In 2017, the Office for National Statistics reported the town had the lowest average income in Britain while it has also been described as being a personal bankruptcy hotspot and a social mobility coldspot. But in recent years the town has been fighting back. In April it was named as one of Britain's best seaside towns by Conde Nasté Traveller while there has been something of a cultural renaissance too with the success of the 6,000-capacity Open Air Theatre. 5 The theatre was reopened by the Queen in 2010 and now claims to be Europe's largest amphitheatre 'since antiquity'. Each year since its renovation it has attracted bigger names to its stage, which sits in the middle of a lake next to England's bracing east coast. Promoters Cuffe and Taylor (C&T) book the acts for the council-owned venue and secured the services of Britney Spears in 2018 and Noel Gallagher 's High Flying Birds twice: in 2016 and 2018. C&T's Peter Taylor reportedly discovered that one of Spears's representatives is originally from Leeds, and liked the idea of bringing the American superstar to the Yorkshire seaside. This summer's headliners include The Corrs, Gary Barlow, Pendulum, Shed Seven and Judas Priest, whose frontman Rob Halford paid tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne at their show in the theatre on July 23. Why is Scarborough so popular with tourists? As the UK's oldest holiday resort, Scarborough is still impressing guests to this day, with its world class accommodation options and stunning stretches of shoreline. The Yorkshire town first became a popular spot for staycationers almost 400 years ago, in the mid 1600s. And it's still held in very high esteem now, with only nearby Whitby beating it to the top of a list of the most popular UK holiday destinations back in 2022. One of the reasons Scarborough attracts visitors in the numbers that it does is because of its long stretches of sandy beach. According to Visit Scarborough, the town has some of "the best beaches in the country" which includes the Blue Flag North Bay Beach. It's favoured by "bathers, families, surfers and a variety of water sports enthusiasts" accord to the Beach Guide, who are also fond of the ruins of 11th century Scarborough Castle, which they say "dominates" the beach's backdrop. The castle's ruins are cared for by English Heritage and visitors can take in the spectacular views out to sea from on top of the hill, surrounded by its remaining turrets towers.


BBC News
28-07-2025
- BBC News
Oxford City Council rents out historic buildings to save £210k
A council has agreed to rent out five of its empty Grade II listed buildings as part of a plan to save £210,000 a City Council approved letting the properties on Ship Street and Michael's Street on 125-year leases. It said each have been empty for years because of "considerable dilapidations affecting their structures and consequent difficulties in letting them".The authority said it would help the properties' restorations without it having to pay for the work itself. The Ship Street properties were formally listed in 1954, while the one in St Michael's Street was listed in of them have been used as hostel or student accommodation over recent years. You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.