One Of Chelmsford’s Oldest Hotels Will Be Knocked Down After Decades Of Service

The South Lodge Hotel will not only close it’s doors for good, but will be demolished to make way for a new care home. This is just the latest development changing the face of Chelmsford.

Out With The Old

Over the last few years Chelmsford has had a number of major developments that has got rid of older buildings to make way for new modernised ones. Older buildings like The South Lodge Hotel require updating so that the hotel can continue to stay open.

The owner of the hotel estimated that it would cost around £1 million to bring it back to a decent standard. So after receiving a generous offer from Carebase Ltd who will be opening the new residential home, it made more sense to sell the building rather than pay out a large sum for refurbishment.

This is similar to the housing development on the site of the St John’s Hospital, where the old Victorian building was demolished to make way for a new apartment building. Again, this is another case where it would take a large amount of money just to refurbish such an old run down building, so it makes more sense to knock it down and build something new from scratch.

Competition

One of the main problems that face The South Lodge Hotel is that a more modern hotel will always come along and make it difficult to get customers. By being such an old building they are at a disadvantage compared to a new fresh looking hotel, especially if it will cost them so much to refurbish their own.

Then you have to consider chains such as Travelodge that offer a more modern style of hotel with competitive prices. People will always consider these companies first because they are well known and a safe bet.

More Housing

Major developments to modernise an area will make it more attractive for people to move there. So an area like Chelmsford will continue to get more popular and be in need of more housing. This is why developments like St John’s Hospital make sense because you are getting rid of an old run down building and replacing it with nice modern homes for people to live in. By building more houses it will bring a lot more people into the area, and with more people comes a lot more money for the area to profit.

Many will be sad to see The South Lodge Hotel demolished and replaced with a residential property, but it’s another example of money being put into the area to replace older run down buildings. So buildings that in a few years would fall down on their own and become an eyesore are now replaced with modernised better-looking buildings.

Chelmsford is continuing to atttract new investment since attaining city status. Mike Low, a local estate agent who has been operating as an estate agent at Balgores Low, with over 20 years experiencei n the region, says that they are experiencing an increase in enqiries for new propertly develipments in the town.