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Administrators move in to run Selsdon’s ‘shabby chic’ hotel

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‘Cash constraints’: Birch Selsdon remains open, operated by administrators

Our business correspondent, ROBERT PESTER, reports on how Croydon’s poshest, hippest hotel with ‘a snag list as long as a novel’ has crashed and burned within six months of reopening

Basic chic: Birch’s ‘luxury’ suites were criticised – some lacked furniture and anywhere for guests to store clothes

Ambitious plans for a pricy members’ club, Michelin-style restaurants and a golf course re-wilded and turned over to nature at the top of Selsdon Hill could be abandoned after the company behind the restyled Birch hotel called in the administrators.

Birch Selsdon was the second of two lifestyle hotels opened by management company Performance Hotels and Aprirose, a real estate investment company.

Birch’s Selsdon business has been open for barely six months, but is now seeking new owners with very deep pockets to keep the place trading. Many of the casual staff at the £220 per night hotel have already been let go.

Aprirose bought the De Vere Theobalds Estate Hotel in Cheshunt in 2018, and – despite the problems of the pandemic for the hospitality industry – they took over the De Vere Selsdon Estate in another multi-million-pound deal in 2021.

The former Selsdon Park Hotel’s golfers sipped their last G&Ts at the 19th hole at the end of that year, as the place was closed for multi-million-pound renovations to the 180-room hotel.

Works lasted well into 2023, when a “Shoreditch shabby chic” lifestyle venue was opened, offering memberships for a mere £150 per month (plus a 300-quid joining fee, if you were approved as being hip enough), plus a couple of top-end restaurants overlooking the hotel’s rolling 200 acres of grounds, where pigs, cattle and ponies were to be introduced to rootle through the undergrowth.

But behind the scenes, there were clearly problems, and cashflow issues. The Birch founder, entrepreneur Chris King, quit the business earlier this year, even before the Selsdon site had opened.

According to a report by The Caterer, the property ran into difficulty due to “cash constraints”. Last Friday, Birch Selsdon was placed into administration by Milan Vuceljic and Andrew Pear of Moorfields Advisory. The venue remains open for customers while the administrators seek a buyer.

No expense spared: the lavish PR photos for Birch Selsdon belied the shabbiness of the hotel’s finish. Not all rooms even had a bath

A statement on the website reads: “The affairs, business and property of the company are being managed by the joint administrators.”

It was just a fortnight ago that Develop Croydon was boasting how Birch Selsdon’s posh hotel was one of its new members, doubtless with an eye on a snouts-in-the-trough Christmas shin-dig around the new lido, with some fizz and 14-quid-a-plate nibbles for the borough’s property speculators and landlords.

The conversations at such a party might take a decidedly different tone now.

Things are even gloomier at the other Birch hotel in Hertfordshire.

A statement on the Birch Cheshunt website reads: “We deeply regret to inform you that the owners of Birch Cheshunt Theobalds Park Op Co have placed the business into administration and the administrators Teneo are closing the hotel with immediate effect.

“We are very sad to share this disappointing news and apologise for the obvious distress and disruption to our members, guests, suppliers and the great employees.”

Cheshunt has 140 rooms as well as its own farm, three bars, 20 event spaces, a bakery, fitness studios and screening rooms.

Overseeing the Cheshunt restaurants was chef Robin Gill who on Tuesday posted on Insta that his team had to “down tools with immediate effect yesterday”.

Exclusive clientele: Birch’s chef, Lee Westcott, was highly praised for the venue’s food

Gill wrote: “I believe this is strictly a financial hit due to a lack of funds required for reinvestment into the sites that was needed to bring the properties up to standard.”

Gill said that he assumed that the hotel is “…now up for sale at a fraction of what the owners would have liked to sell it for and needs some love from investors with vision and passion to get it to where it needs, and deserves to be”.

It is not known how many members Birch Selsdon had signed up in the few months it has been open. Many will now be expecting refunds.

The Caterer quoted a Selson member: “The gardener is on reception and they have let go of all the zero-hours people. The lido is shut too. The animals are going back and we are told they will know by Friday exactly what is happening.”

Administrator Vuceljic said: “The Birch hotel group had a unique market proposition, which fitted with today’s health and well-being culture whilst still boasting a Greater London location.

“We are currently continuing to trade the hotel whilst we explore various options, which we believe provides a good opportunity for potential purchasers.”

It was clear from some savage reviews on TripAdvisor that corners had been cut and that Birch Selsdon had opened when not properly finished.

“Terrible service, place is trying too hard to be something it really is not,” wrote one disappointed customer after a visit to Selsdon earlier this month. Other complaints have included small rooms, no carpets, dirty bathrooms, no furniture and dodgy electric fittings.

This visitor’s comment about “bad service in restaurant” was validated by a recent review by The Observer’s highly regarded critic, Jay Rayner.

UnDevelop Croydon: Croydon’s piss-poor PR agency Grey Label and the property speculators at Develop Croydon might need to find a new venue for their Christmas piss-up

Rayner was very complimentary about the food, from kitchens run by chef Lee Westcott: “The terrific cooking here seriously deserves a tidier, snazzier setting.”

But he was less impressed by the under-trained waiting staff and the general feel of the place. Rayner had gone for a meal in the Vervain restaurant with his wife and their builder (don’t ask). “For all the breathless talk of the facilities – the outdoor pool, the ‘wellness space’, the kid-friendly wing – Birch feels very much like a work in progress.

“My wife, Pat, comes back from the ladies with photos of a knackered old-school public convenience in desperate need of care. Our builder… returns from the men’s, rolling his eyes at the shoddy silicon sealant work. I take a look. He’s not wrong. You could peel it from the tiling like fishy lumps of Copydex off your hands.

“They must have a snag list as long as a novel.”

And Rayner added, rather kindly, “I really hope they get it sorted soon.”

Which now seems like wishful thinking.

Read more: Lots of reservations after Selsdon hotel and golf course close
Read more: Get orf moy laaand! Posh hotel declares parkland a no-go zone
Read more: Selsdon Park’s golfing paradise looks lost under new owners


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