Northamptonshire buyer for Isle of Wight hotel

John Baldwin from Kettering in Northamptonshire has bought the Best Western Ventnor Towers hotel on the Isle of Wight.

The three-star hotel occupies a four-and-a-half acre site on the cliff tops at Ventnor which has been known as the Madeira of England since Victorian times on account of its clement climate.

Built in 1872 as a gentleman's residence, the hotel now offers 25 en-suite bedrooms, a 100-seat restaurant/bar that doubles as a function room, and a lounge that is also used as a 20-seat meeting room.

Outside, the hotel provides an outdoor heated swimming pool with a plant room, a surface tennis court, a nine-hole pitch and putt course and a 24-bay car park.

The hotel also contains a managers' flat (currently used for storage) that will be redeveloped as a three-bedroom owners' apartment, two staff bedrooms with facilities, and two drivers' rooms.

The Winchester office of Christie + Co sold the freehold off an asking price of £925,000 on behalf of the Janzen family, who have run the hotel for 18 years but now want to focus on their other hotel, the Melbourne Ardenlea in Shanklin

By Angela Frewin