Hoylake’s landmark King’s Gap Hotel to be rebranded as a Holiday Inn ahead of 2014 Open Golf Championships

Mar 17 2010 by Liam Murphy, Heswall News

HOYLAKE’S landmark Kings Gap Hotel will be rebranded as a Holiday Inn ahead of the 2014 Open Golf Championship.

The £6.5m revamp plans were unanimously approved by councillors on Thursday.

Plans to convert a nearby former nursing home into a boutique hotel were also approved.

Wirral Council’s director of technical services, Dave Green, said the move would see two hotels close to the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, in preparation for the return of the Open to the historic course.

The Kings Gap Hotel is within the Kings Gap Conservation Area, which was designated in April, 2000.

The lighthouse, on Valentia Road, and St Hildeburgh’s Church, on Kings Gap opposite the site, are both Grade II listed buildings.

A planning officer report said: “The original hotel will be retained with an existing conservatory removed and replaced with a single storey dining room. Demolition of these buildings could be considered to enhance the Conservation Area.”

The site already has planning consent for a similar redevelopment, which was approved in 2008.

However, this approval was for a larger development, and in addition to the renovation of the hotel it included a three-storey linked extension along the Kings Gap where the existing annex is, and along Valencia Road.

The current application is a revision of these proposals which no longer includes the Kings Gap extension and has a smaller three storey rear extension.

The total number of proposed bedrooms is reduced from the 66 previously approved to 56, although the car parking area is larger than the previous approval and has increased numbers of spaces from 56 to 79.