Croydon Park Hotel lies on Altyre Road Croydon, and the land has been sold for a new, larger scale hotel called The Lilibet. Amro Partners are working with the Croydon council to create a better addition to Croydon.
The name ‘Lilibet’ references the nickname Queen Elizabeth II had when she was young, meaning. Her great-granddaughter Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor was named in her honor. In Hebrew It is a feminine name meaning “God is my oath”. Thus the title ‘Lilibet’ can be seen as a wholesome sign of respect for the unfortunately passed Queen.
One of the exciting parts of this is the commitment to being sustainability and having better energy efficiency standards. The Lilibet aims to have Net Zero Carbon by reusing materials when possible and minimising emissions. The project will also have a well-kept landscape garden which will make that area of Croydon more visually pleasant; over 50% of the site will be soft landscaping. In terms of energy usage, they will minimise unnecessary usage of supplies, and plan to reduce energy consumption to 35 Kilowatt-hours per metre sqared (yr.) and reduce space heating demand to 15 Kilowatt-hours per metre squared (yr.). This will not impact the quality of service, but is intended to just cut down on needless energy usage.
There will be around 450 new homes, which is excellent, as gets more people into affordable homes. The Lilibet will also provide leisure centre & gym, helping to create the quality of stay for residents better.Longer tenancies will be available offering residents more housing security, which is great. Built-to-Rent (BTR) refers to purposed housing designed for rent rather than sale, and a more communicable environment. People can live closer to central Croydon without compromising on a comfortable lifestyle, in turn supporting the economy by bringing more people into the city of Croydon.
Recently in October, an exhibition was held for these plans. The Lilibet website is a source to provide you all the important information, and provide some feedback. The current round of public consultation will end on the 3rdNovember and the planning submission will by officially submitted at some time in December. This project is an incredibly exciting prospect as it is wonderful that Croydon’s facilities are placing a greater importance on sustainability and energy cost. The visual concepts thus far look quite promising, and are certainly a step-up from the previous Croydon Park Hotel.
Croydon Park Hotel has already closed and plans are under way – this is only a temporary loss and as the team behind the Lilibet said on the website:
The new development will bring a much-needed positive uplift to the local area. The current hotel building, now vacant, has become an abandoned eyesore and the building presents a gloomy face to Altyre Road. The frontage on Hazledean Road is blighted by an underused, ugly open car park.
This may at first seem quite harsh, but from the looks of it so far, the project is a very positive improvement to Croydon and the Lilibet is expected to be an upgrade in all facets, but we should probably wait for the hotel to be open before making any conclusions.
