Work begins on £5.5m Hoylake hotel upgrade

WORK has begun on a £5.5m project to transform a hotel site in the heart of Wirral’s golf country.

Liverpool-based Denizen Contracts is to transform the former Kings Gap Hotel in Hoylake into a new Holiday Inn Express Liverpool site. The hotel, which is close to the Royal Liverpool golf club,  will be operated by Liverpool-based Sanguine Hospitality.

Sanguine, which will also operate the new Days Inn and Hotel Indigo sites when they open this year, said that up to 50 new jobs could be created once the work at Hoylake completes.

It involves the addition of a new Frankie’s Bar & Grill – a restaurant collaboration between jockey Frankie Dettori and chef Marco Pierre White.

The hotel upgrade has been designed by Liverpool-based architects Falconer Chester Hall.

Simon Matthews-Williams, chairman of Sanguine Hospitality, said: “Kings Gap Court is an historic building in a prime location which we felt deserved sympathetic restoration and modernisation.

“The site offers an excellent location in close proximity to Royal Liverpool and several other top class golf clubs, and the Holiday Inn Express will provide affordable accommodation just five minutes walk from the beach.

Originally a pair of private dwellings, Kings Gap Court first became a hotel in the 1930s. FCH’s plans will remain sympathetic to the existing façade and will enhance the conservation area in which the hotel stands.

Adam Hall, managing director of FCH, said: “Extensions have been added to the hotel over the years and the removal of these will enhance the area and restore the stunning historic frontage to its former glory.

“Leisure and dining facilities – with a Marco Pierre White twist – will be improved, creating a high-quality hotel attracting international visitors and local residents.”

Sanguine also owns and operates other properties in the region including Aughton venues The Swan Inn and West Tower, Doubletree by Hilton at Chester, and Days Hotel Chester North. It is also set to launch a new Hotel Indigo in Manchester city centre.