Plans to demolish a Victorian hotel in Kenilworth have been revealed just months after it was bought for £5million.

Archel Homes took over the 74-bed Woodside Hotel and Conference Centre in November 2021 after the previous owners had gone into administration.

The Glasshouse Lane mansion house had been run by The Sundial Group as a hotel since 1998 before it went into administration in February 2021.

But a planning application for its demolition has actually been submitted by Crewe Lane Kenilworth JV LLP.

Companies House list the company's two officers as Vistry Linden Limited and Milverton Homes - Warwick District Council's own housing company.

The application does not say what will replace the building if it is demolished.

A planning application submitted to WDC simply says it will be demolished "to facilitate proposed new development of the site".

The planning application added: "The site is unlisted, outside of a conservation area.

"The property is not a public house or venue for live music and is not unsafe or uninhabitable.

"The site comprises the buildings, car park, tennis courts and grounds of the former Woodside Hotel and Conference Centre which includes (with the conference centre itself) the visitor accommodation blocks (housing 74 ensuite rooms), gym and health suite, restaurant and bar spaces and various outbuildings.

"The hotel and conference centre has been disused since the beginning of the Covid Restrictions in March 2020.

"During that period, the business went into administration and despite best efforts, did not attract a potential operator to continue the business."

The building spent much of the 20th century as a training centre for Coventry-based textile manufacturer Courtaulds before being sold to the Chudley family in 1997 and turned into a hotel.

A planning application to build 620 new homes around the hotel has already been approved by WDC.

Archel Homes, Vistry Limited and Warwick District Council have all been approached for comment.

(Image via Maypm via wikimedia commons)