Read the Latest Issue
HD MAGAZINE
Inspiration at your fingertips
Sign up for the latest edition of Hospitality Design magazine and HD's various newsletters
DIGITAL EDITION PRINT SUBSCRIPTION NEWSLETTERS
ARCHIVED ISSUES
HD EXPO + CONFERENCE
See you in 2025!
Save the date for the industry's leading event in Las Vegas, May 6–8th, 2025
HD EXPO + CONFERENCE
        • Projects
          • Development + Destinations
          • Boutique + Lifestyle
          • F+B
          • Hotels + Resorts
          • Retail + Commercial
          • Wellness + Sustainability
        • People
          • Interviews
          • Podcasts
          • Webinars
        • News
          • Business + People
          • Boutique + Lifestyle
          • Development + Destinations
          • F+B
          • Five on Friday
          • Hotels + Resorts
          • Retail + Commercial
          • Wellness + Sustainability
        • Products
          • Accesories + Art
          • Bath + Spa
          • Beds + Bedding
          • Flooring.
          • Furniture
          • Lighting
          • Outdoor
          • Roundups
          • Surfaces
          • Technology
          • Textiles
        • Videos
          • Awards + Events
          • BDNY
          • HD Expo + Conference
          • HDTV
          • Partner Spotlight
        • Awards + Events
          • HD Expo + Conference
          • BDNY
          • HD Awards
          • HD Summit
          • HD NextGen Forum
          • HD Platinum Circle Awards
          • HD CitySCENE
          • HD Wave of the Future
          • BD Forums
          • BD Match
          • Gold Key Awards
          • Senior Lifestyle Design Match
          • Event Photos
HD MAGAZINE
Inspiration at your fingertips
Sign up for the latest edition of Hospitality Design magazine and HD's various newsletters
DIGITAL EDITION PRINT SUBSCRIPTION NEWSLETTERS
ARCHIVED ISSUES
HD EXPO + CONFERENCE
See you in 2025!
Save the date for the industry's leading event in Las Vegas, May 6–8th, 2025
HD EXPO + CONFERENCE
Follow Along
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
M
POPULAR SEARCHES
PODCASTS
WEBINARS
FURNITURE
PROJECTS
VIDEO INTERVIEWS
INTERVIEWS
M
    
Search IconA magnifying glass icon.
  • News
    • Business + People
    • Boutique + Lifestyle
    • Development + Destinations
    • F+B
    • Five on Friday
    • Hotels + Resorts
    • Retail + Commercial
    • Wellness + Sustainability
  • Projects
    • Development + Destinations
    • Boutique + Lifestyle
    • F+B
    • Hotels + Resorts
    • Retail + Commercial
    • Wellness + Sustainability
  • People
    • Interviews
    • Podcasts
    • Webinars
  • Products
    • Accessories + Art
    • Bath + Spa
    • Beds + Bedding
    • Flooring
    • Furniture
    • Lighting
    • Outdoor
    • Roundups
    • Surfaces
    • Technology
    • Textiles
  • Awards + Events
    • HD Expo + Conference
    • BDNY
    • HD Awards
    • HD Summit
    • HD NextGen Forum
    • HD Platinum Circle Awards
    • HD CitySCENE
    • HD Wave of the Future
    • BD Forums
    • BD Match
    • Gold Key Awards
    • Event Photos
  • Videos
    • Awards + Events
    • BDNY
    • HD Expo + Conference
    • HDTV
    • Partner Spotlight
  • Subscribe
    • HD Newsletters
    • HD Magazine – Print
    • HD Magazine – Digital
    • BD Newsletters
    • BD Magazine
Read the Latest Issue
PROJECTS: Hotels + Resorts | Wellness + Sustainability
December 15, 2020

Buxton Crescent Hotel Revives Its Status As a Wellness Destination

After a heroic preservation, the centuries-old hotel and spa is back on the wellness tourism map

Words by: Neena Dhillon • Photos courtesy of Buxton Crescent Hotel

The expansive restoration carefully preserved the hotel's 18th-century stately curved architecture
The expansive restoration carefully preserved the hotel's 18th-century stately curved architecture

Projects:

Hotels + Resorts | Wellness + Sustainability
December 15, 2020

Buxton Crescent Hotel Revives Its Status As a Wellness Destination

After a heroic preservation, the centuries-old hotel and spa is back on the wellness tourism map

Words by: Neena Dhillon • Photos courtesy of Buxton Crescent Hotel
The expansive restoration carefully preserved the hotel's 18th-century stately curved architecture

Restoring a near-derelict, Georgian architectural treasure was never going to be straightforward. But the 20-year, $90-million effort to refurbish the Grade I-listed Buxton Crescent hotel and spa in England’s Peak District has taken the collective input of heritage and government bodies as well as hospitality, design, engineering, and geology experts. “We don’t give in easily,” says Trevor Osborne, whose eponymous property group developed the Ensana-operated hotel in partnership with CP Holdings. “The complexities we faced were multifold, from ensuring the integrity of the thermal water springs below the buildings to reinforcing the structure of the degraded historic fabric, and introducing modern standards of luxury comparable to Europe’s finest spa hotels.”

Commissioned in 1780 by William Cavendish, the Duke of Devonshire, Buxton Crescent was designed by architect John Carr as a collection of lodging houses, hotels, and an assembly room—their collective façade fashioned out of local gritstone into an imposing arc, complete with columns and arcaded walkways. Tapping into the natural spring welling up on his land, Cavendish envisioned Buxton as a chic spa town with the pulling power to attract high society, something it achieved into the Victorian era.

Along with an ice room, mineral bath, saunas, and steam rooms, a salt cave is one of the spa’s relaxation zones

While “Carr was a great designer,” says Osborne, “he wasn’t a great builder,” and so the present-day architects had to deal with dizzyingly complex spatial planning, climatic damage, and bizarre structural anomalies including fireplaces suspended on timber.

Where restoration has allowed, the project team has preserved stone, glass, and wood features, even working traditional elements into the new extension. In the restaurant, intricate plastered ceilings and the external crescent sandstone wall is showcased within contemporary interiors. Lead designer Marc Dorrian of the firm Curious, which has offices in London, Glasgow, and Dubai, notes the grandeur of the assembly room, which lives on in “original chandeliers, gilt-topped Corinthian columns, and an ornate ceiling.” The bar, “full of interesting character,” benefits from the addition of leather, eglomise mirror, antique bronze, and wallcoverings that are an homage to Charles Darwin’s grandfather, who once favored Buxton’s waters.

But it’s in the spa, a former Victorian bathhouse, where old and new meet most emphatically. “Sitting in harmony with the original ornamental cast-iron beams and pillars, a new stained-glass dome casts calming blue and green hues over the thermal pool below,” explains Dorrian, “while the intimate relaxation pool has a dramatic black barrel ceiling with celestial mood lighting.”

In addition to the thermal pool, surrounded by Victorian tiles from the 1920s, and the rooftop pool, the tranquil relaxation pool is set underneath a starry canopy of midnight blue

An otherworldly mermaid mural by Darlington, England-based artist Katie Bird wraps the spa corridor

This article originally appeared in HD’s November 2020 issue.

Hotels + Resorts | Wellness + Sustainability
Renovations + Restorations•Spas + Wellbeing

SHARE

em

ln

fb

pn

tw

PROJECTS Hotels + Resorts

Saudi Arabia’s Desert Rock Immerses Guests in the Land

May 28, 2025

PROJECTS Hotels + Resorts

W Hotels 2.0 Elevates the Brand Into Its Luxury Era

May 21, 2025

← Previous Project Next Project →
HD MAGAZINE
hospitality design magazine august 2024 issue product marketplace

Inspiration at your fingertips

Get the newest issue of Hospitality Design magazine

DIGITAL EDITION

PRINT SUBSCRIPTION
ARCHIVED ISSUES
HD NEWSLETTERS

Join the list

Sign up for HD's various newsletters
for exclusive weekly content
SUBSCRIBE

BD MAGAZINE + NEWSLETTER

boutique design magazine fall 2024 issue

Sign up!

Don't miss the latest from Boutique Design

NEWSLETTER SIGN UP

SUBSCRIBE

ARCHIVED ISSUES

About | Contact | Buyers Guide | Advertise | Advisory Board | Sitemap

FOLLOW US ON

  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow

Subscribe

Emerald Logo
© 2025 Emerald X, LLC. All Rights Reserved
ABOUTCAREERSAUTHORIZED SERVICE PROVIDERSYour Privacy ChoicesTERMS OF USEPRIVACY POLICY

Sign up to stay informed about our latest awards and events.

Follow Along
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow

Sign up to stay informed about our latest awards and events.

Follow Along
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow