The Grove (Hertfordshire)
The Grove is a luxury hotel in the UK . The hotel, located near Watford in Hertfordshire , is partly housed in a mansion classified as a Grade II * cultural monument .
location
The hotel is northwest of Watford and south of Kings Langley and approximately 18 miles from the City of London . The hotel has over 120 hectares of grounds bounded to the west by the Grand Union Canal and the River Gade .
history
A first mansion was built towards the end of the 16th century. Charles Buck began building the current house around 1720 . After several changes of ownership, the diplomat Thomas Villiers acquired the property in 1753 , who had it rebuilt in Georgian style from 1754 to 1761 by Matthew Brettingham . Around 1780, Villiers , who had meanwhile been promoted to Earl of Clarendon, had the building changed again by Robert Taylor . When the London and Birmingham Railway was being built in the 1830s , the 4th Earl of Clarendon refused to allow the route to run over its ground. Therefore, part of the route had to be laboriously led through the 1.5 km long Watford Tunnel . In the 19th century, The Grove was a meeting place for Victorian society , including the heir to the throne Albert , Spencer Horatio Walpole and Lord Palmerston as guests in the manor. From about 1870 to 1875 Edward Blore made major renovations for the 5th Earl of Clarendon . In 1920 the Villiers family sold the manor house, which was used by British Rail as a boarding school and later as a training center over the next few decades . For these uses, further modifications were made in the middle of the 20th century. Since November 15, 1973, the manor house has been a listed cultural monument. In 1996 an investment company bought the mansion, which was in dire need of restoration. She had it extensively rebuilt and expanded with a hotel complex. Since 2004, the former mansion has served as the center of a hotel that is one of the Leading Hotels of the World . At the beginning of December 2019, the hotel served as a conference venue for a NATO summit .
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investment
The original two-storey mansion, made of bricks, was initially built on an H-shaped floor plan. During the renovation around 1720, the building was rebuilt on a T-shaped floor plan, with a side wing being added to the left, western side of the main wing. Robert Taylor designed the east wing with the new main entrance around 1780. Originally the main entrance was on the south side, which is divided by Doric pilasters . The manor house was significantly enlarged and changed as a result of the later renovations. In the conversion by Edward Blore in the 19th century, the buildings have been increased by a floor, said flat inclined slate roof for the most part by a provided with decorative vases attic is hidden. The buildings on the north side of the manor house date from the 20th century. From the interior, chimneys, stucco ceilings and doors from around 1780 are still preserved in some rooms.
Directly south of the mansion is a formal garden . To the west of the manor house are the former stables that serve as one of the hotel's restaurants. There is a golf course to the west, south and east of the hotel.
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literature
- Dennis Lovett, Robert Heasman, David Wild: The Grove Story . British Railways Board, Watford 1984, ISBN 0-9509320-0-0
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Watford Observer: History of the Grove. Retrieved December 10, 2019 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 40 ′ 38.6 " N , 0 ° 26 ′ 11" W.