Stonehurst Hotel Has Redecorated Interior

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31236, 7 December 1966, Page 14

Stonehurst Hotel Has Redecorated Interior

In the last two years the interior of a Christchurch private hotel, the Stonehurst, has been almost completely renovated at a cost estimated between £5OOO and £6OOO. Working only between May and October during the last two years, the manager (Mr H. R. Knowles) and Mr C. Davenport have redesigned

and redecorated 40 rooms, the lounge, the dining hall and all the passageways. Only one bathroom is still to be done. Mr Knowles attended to the carpentry while Mr Davenport did the plastering, painting and paper-hanging. Most of the passageways now have either hand-plastered walls or pannelling. Every room now has a different design and Mr Davenport, who did all the designing himself, spent six months of each year doing nothing else.

Mr Knowles said the bedrooms had cost up to £4O each to redecorate, but the most expensive item had been laying down new carpets. The dining hall alone had cost £l5OO to redesign and carpet. The hotel now has a maximum accommodation of 64 and the dining hall has a capacity sitting of 70. It is now running near capacity all the year round and is almost completely booked out for January, 1968. The hotel has never had a licence and went through a bad period about 1940. “Price controls cut Incentives to improve standards," said Mr Knowles. “Now these have been lifted anyone who is interested can keep up a good standard at a reasonable price.”