Demolition underway at Preston’s Park Hotel

Contractor Eric Wright has started demolition work as part of plans to redevelop The Park Hotel, which was most recently used as offices by Lancashire County Council, bringing it back into use as a 71-bedroom hotel with a spa and offices. 

The Park Hotel in Preston’s East Cliff area opened in 1882 and the part of the building being demolished is an office block built in the 1960s. 

Knocking down this part of the site is intended to make room for a mixed-use five-storey building that will be used for offices on the lower two floors, along with a further 44 hotel rooms on the upper floors. 

The original red-brick structure will be restored, and a pavilion will be built immediately to the east of the Park Hotel building, overlooking Avenham and Miller Parks, to be used as a banqueting suite for up to 500 people. 

The mixed-use scheme is being brought forward by the Local Pension Partnership, a joint venture between Lancashire County Council and the London Pensions Fund Authority, which bought the hotel in 2016. 

Lancashire County Council Pension Fund is set to take the ground and first floor office space. 

In addition, No.8 East Cliff, a grade two-listed building on the site, will be converted from its former use as an office into a spa to serve the hotel, under the plans. 

Cassidy & Ashton is the architect and Frank Whittle Partnership is the project manager and cost consultant. 

A five-storey extension featuring hotel rooms and offices will replace the demolished office block