A brief history of Kenwood Hall
The Kenwood Hall is located in one of Sheffield’s most beautiful
suburbs. The oldest part of the hotel was built as the private
residence of Sheffield cutlery manufacturer George Wostenholm in
1845. He named the house Kenwood after a place of that name he had
visited near Oneida Lake Upper New York State, some 180 miles east
of Niagara Falls.
The stunning grounds with it's Italian garden and terraces,
pleasure grounds, a park, vineries, peach and other glasshouses and
an ornamental lake were laid out by Robert Marnock who was later
responsible for the design of the gardens of the Royal Botanic
Society of London in Regent’s Park,
In about 1868 Wostenholm constructed the North Lodge with its
imposing archway at the junction of Rundle Road and Kenwood
Road. From it a new drive was made round the north side of
the house leading under the stone arch of 1858 to the entrance
front. On the front of the North Lodge can be seen Wostenholm’s
arms and crest, which was granted in 1868.
After his death in 1876 Kenwood Park, as it was then known, was
inherited by his widow Eliza and her second husband, Thomas
Beaumont, added a major extension to the house in 1882-3 on the
north side. In March 1899 the estate then passed into the
hands of a group of Trustees who then in January 1922 sold the
estate by auction to Kenwood Ltd for £5,500. The company then
adapted the house and it was opened as a residential hotel called
Kenwood. The inclusive en pension weekly terms for bedroom,
lights and attendance, baths, full table d’hote meals, afternoon
tea and coffee after dinner for a single room were 4 to 7 guineas,
for a double room 8 to 14 guineas, the charges varying according to
the size and position of the room. Fires in bedrooms were 3/- (15p)
per day or 1/9 (7p) for an evening only. A private lock-up garage
was available for 7/- (35p) a week.
The hotel prospered and in about 1930 a new bedroom wing was
built running east from the main house.
In 1956 work began clearing four greenhouses on the west side of
the garages to build a banqueting suite for Kenwood Hotel. This was
completed in 1958 and opened as Kenwood Hall.
In 1975 a new hotel, the Hotel St George, was built in the
grounds of the Kenwood Hotel. The new hotel had 48 single and
30 double bedrooms, many of them in a three storey south facing
wing overlooking the gardens and lake. The two properties were
combined in 1983 to form one hotel of 115 bedrooms. The new luxury
4 star hotel was given the name Hotel St George. Over the
next few years the hotel changed hands and a number of developments
took place. The level ground, once part of Wostenholm’s
terraced lawns, behind the main reception and dining room block,
was cut away to give a view of the lake, many trees were planted. A
£300,000 leisure complex was opened, with a heated pool, steam
room, Jacuzzi, showers, sun bed and rest room.
Then in November 2007 the property was bought by Principal
Hayley Hotels and Conference Venues and re-branded as the Kenwood
Hall.
To book a conference call 0844 824 6174. To book a
bedroom call 0844 824 6171.
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