Minley Manor: Designing hospitality within heritage
Transforming heritage estates into viable destinations demands more than imagination; it requires careful negotiation between conservation, planning, and the needs of modern hospitality.
Minley Manor, a French Gothic-style house in Hampshire, demonstrates how heritage and development can be balanced.
Purcell was engaged to secure planning consent for the manor’s reinvention as a luxury hotel. The site presented significant challenges: a complex mix of historic buildings, sensitive landscapes, and unsympathetic 20th century additions. The task was to retain character while enabling a commercially sustainable scheme. This strategy was informed by detailed research into the history and significance of the site through a Conservation Management Plan, advised on what works would or would not be appropriate.
Planning visualisations
Three design strategies shaped our approach.
First, a crafted extension to the manor house, continuing its architectural language while providing the scale required for hotel use. Second, a lightweight spa pavilion within a walled garden – deliberately contemporary, yet modest in form, to preserve the integrity of the setting. Third, a series of ancillary buildings for dining, weddings, and events, all carefully knitted into the existing garden walls and landscape to reduce visual impact.
The planning journey was even more significant.
A stringent phasing requirement, tied to conservation works, meant demonstrating how development value could unlock investment in the historic fabric. Close collaboration with Historic England was pivotal: their support ultimately secured the project’s approval on this highly sensitive site.
The result is a consented scheme that respects the site’s architectural heritage while enabling its adaptive reuse as a hospitality venue. Minley Manor now stands well poised for evolution, offering guests a contemporary experience in a setting shaped by its history.
