Very few people like to stay in hospitals: aside from the dormitory-like wards and famously bad food, they tend to be full of sick people. With the NHS turning 70 today, this pocket guide looks at three former medical premises that have been turned into magnificent hotels, and now offer their guests a more pleasant overnight stay.
The Lanesborough, Hyde Park Corner, London
The original St George’s Hospital was opened within Lanesborough House in 1733. By the 1800s, the hospital was falling into disrepair and Lanesborough House was demolished to make way for a new 350-bed facility. Construction began in 1827 and the new hospital was operational by 1844, serving continuously until the hospital moved to south London in the 1970s, leaving Lanesborough House empty.
The refurbished premises was opened as an hotel in 1991, and closed during the most recent period of renovation (2013-15). Once reputed as the most expensive hotel in London, it’s restaurant achieved its Michelin star in the current fastest time for a new London restaurant – less than five months.
The hotel’s rooms and suites are uniquely furnished with in-room responsive technology and powerful WiFi. It claims to offer (some) guests some of “London’s finest health and fitness facilities” but its USP is its round-the-clock butler service in each room ensuring guests have their every need seen to.
The Clarion Hotel, Sligo, Ireland
The Clarion Hotel in Sligo was opened in 2005 at the site of the former Saint Columba’s Lunatic Asylum, a beautiful Elizabethan style building which opened in 1855 after six years’ construction and at a cost of more than £53,000. The mental hospital introduced new treatment methods in the late 19th century, minimising the use of restraints, and allowing its 1,100 patients greater freedom, and taking a more humane approach to mental health care.
The hotel now offers 162 bedrooms, gym, swimming pool and a banqueting hall, and some ghostly activity, with accommodation that will suit most budgets.
Hotel du Vin, Edinburgh
Hotel du Vin is famous for choosing eccentric locations for their hotels. Their Edinburgh offering is no different, housed in an 18th Century poorhouse – later known as the ‘Bedlam’ or the city asylum. Patients here were treated as prisoners, locked away in cold cells and treated inhumanely, denied proper treatment. Hotel du Vin purchased the building in 2006 and it is now a luxurious retreat, although holidaymakers have reported strange activity including showers that switch themselves on.
