Croydon Council’s attempt to reduce its mounting debts by selling off Coulsdon Manor Hotel and Golf Club has failed to produce the required result after the venue failed to attract any buyers after 14 months on the market and has now been withdrawn from sale.
The property, which boasts a 42-bedroom hotel and an 18-hole golf course set in 140 acres of parkland, was put on the market in July last year after Croydon Councill, which has owned the freehold for the site since the 1930s, attempted to reduce its financial deficit.
The business was put on market with offers invited for £750,000, but there have been no serious offers made, with current leaseholder Bespoke Hotels withdrawing its initial bid after difficulties over access roads and the restricted options for development arose.
The golf course, which was opened as a private club in 1926, has been a pay-and-play public course for the last 85 years. Bespoke Hotels have operated the hotel and the golf club under long-term leases from Croydon Council for more than 20 years. According to official council reports last year, Bespoke took on the golf club in 1999 by paying an initial premium of £150,000 and it has since paid an annual rent of around £19,000, based on a percentage of the turnover income.
The council report said that the hotel is let on a separate lease of a similar length with 103 years remaining, but is on a peppercorn rent. An initial premium of £600,000 was paid in 1999 for the lease.
Coulsdon Manor is located on the Local List of Historic Parks and Gardens, which restricts how the building and the site can be used for development. The adjoining Coulsdon Court Woods form part of a Site of Nature Conservation Importance, and the entire site is in the Metropolitan Green Belt.
Croydon Council has not yet commented publicly on what its future plans are for the venue.