Midlands & East Anglia Premier Hospitality

The Ivy House Country Hotel

The Ivy House Country Hotel , Lowestoft
Written by Roma Publications

The Ivy House Country Hotel , Lowestoft

Nestled on the banks of Oulton Broad amongst 21 acres of beautiful lawns, ponds, gardens and thatched barns, The Ivy House Country Hotel is a stunning hotel providing guests with excellent hospitality in stylish surroundings.

In July 2013, the hotel was purchased by Dr Adrian Parton MBE, who along with his cousin Keith Parton implemented an extensive refurbishment scheme which has truly transformed the hotel into a customer-focused venue.

Premier Hospitality recently spoke to Dr Adrian Parton MBE, the Chairman and Proprietor of The Ivy House Country Hotel, to find out about the works that have taken place over the past two years. Dr Parton MBE gave us an insight into the scope of the refurbishment and also explained the importance of the project for taking the hotel forward.

The Ivy House Country Hotel , Lowestoft

Dr Parton MBE, said:

“Since we took over the hotel in 2013 there have been two major building projects.

“The first project involved the construction of Eve’s Bar & Lounge – an 8 meter x 6 meter green oak lounge attached to a completely new bar. We got planning permission for Eve’s Bar & Lounge in mid-October 2013 and we launched the bar on 6th December the same year.

“The project took seven weeks in total which was pretty amazing as at the same time we refurbished the entire hotel, including bedrooms, bathrooms and all public areas – it was a pretty intensive project.

The Ivy House Country Hotel , Lowestoft

“The second project was to construct a 32 meter x 12 meter purpose-built function area, complete with a bar, cellar and washroom. The function hall covers an area of 26 meters x 12 meters, whilst the remainder of the space includes an 8 meter x 6 meter fully-equipped operational kitchen and a 6 meter long bar. The function building includes Wi-Fi, state-of-the-art lighting, multi-coloured LEDs, ceiling drapes and a £30,000 sound system.”

Prior to the creation of the new function space the hotel operated functions from a marquee, however this was less than ideal as the marquee did not provide much in the way of sound proofing. An important aspect of the new build was to ensure that sound insulation was incorporated in order to ensure noise levels were kept to a minimum.

The walls of the function space include 2 x 15mm thick acoustic plasterboards, plus a layer of dense rock wall, a layer of metal cladding and a layer of wooden cladding. Meanwhile, the ceiling has been fitted with a collection of 2 inch thick acoustic tiles, which sits in front of rock wall cladding and additional tiling.

The Ivy House Country Hotel , Lowestoft

Dr Parton, said:

“The biggest challenge we had whilst working on these projects was time. In terms of the function space, we built the building and needed it to be functional by 25th March 2015 in time for our first function. To construct the building and complete all the landscaping on time was hard work, especially when considering that our metal cladding didn’t arrive on-site until the end of January.”

P J Spillings Ltd was the main contractor on the project, whilst Ian Garrett Building Design Ltd provided all architectural services. Both of these contractors were very professional and were critical to the successful delivery of the project.

Dr Parton said:

“These projects were very important to us. The function space gives us independence to have functions and leave our main feature restaurant free for our local customers to use, 365 days a year. We no longer have to close the hotel down when we have a function on, which is crucial for us as we continue to build the business.

The Ivy House Country Hotel , Lowestoft

“Our guests have seen the changes that we have implemented and we are getting more and more people coming here. We run a huge number of annual events at the hotel and our functions have increased fivefold.”

For further information on Ivy House Country Hotel, please visit: www.ivyhousecountryhotel.co.uk.

 

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Roma Publications