Making a virtue from the large accessible stair lift in the entrance Cosmo boasts that the hotel, which had the first stair lift in Eastbourne, now has its largest. Leading into the reception the entrance is sharp in white, with staff working at large screen white Apple computers and white Swan chairs for guests to sit on.

There are few echoes of the past here, and whilst previous conversions have been of office blocks this regeneration of an old hotel is remarkably successful. Faith has been kept with the original interior, and the deep skirtings of the nineteenth century have been fully recreated in the bedrooms. Chandeliers re-used and a funky bar fitting creates a club ambience, allowing the bar to meld with the lounge and breakfast area, capitalising on the light, the views and respecting the original windows and plaster work.

At Eastbourne, perhaps more successfully than in Cheltenham, the company has created a new hotel from an old building, brought a spark of life to a somewhat somnambulant seafront and added to the impulse for change that appears through the Polish and other interesting restaurants. Eastbourne with its skies, light, freshly painted railings, its family friendly front, Harry Ramsdens fish bar, and sea, seems a fitting place for the blue and white scheme used here. I look forward to seeing what they come up with for the next property, in Bournemouth perhaps?


Patrick Goff