Latest news with #SupremeEscapes
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Historic Lake District inn being redeveloped into £3m boutique hotel
A HISTORIC Lake District pub - the highest in Cumbria - in being converted into a boutique hotel. The Kirkstone Pass Inn, which was bought by development company Supreme Escapes in 2021, is currently being refurbished to open as a boutique hotel with pub attached. Supreme Escapes are a company who say they 'specialise in rural and countryside areas, taking semi-derelict buildings and finding new ways of giving them a new lease of life'. They have previously developed a former Church in Cockermouth into a holiday home. Company co-founder Jerry Huppert estimates that Supreme Escapes have so far spent around £3million and are hoping to have a final spend of around £3.25 million. He said: 'We have given the building a new lease of life now for hopefully another 150 years. 'It's an honour to be given such an opportunity and I recommend more developers and investors go down the route of bringing back heritage and dilapidated building in the UK rather than just always jumping on the new builds.' The developer hopes that the Kirkstone Pass Inn will be opened as a boutique hotel by the end of July with the pub element set to follow shortly after. Following news of the redevelopment coming out on social media, the company faced a backlash to the plans with some people fearing the venue would be used for stag and hen parties as well as raising concerns about the loss of character of the building. However Mr Huppert said that rumours of the pub being turned into a venue for stag and hen parties were 'unsubstantiated' and that those who are speaking out now against the plans should have supported the pub before it was allowed to have become semi-derelict. 'The way I look at it is something is happening, someone went and invested in a place that was going down, if the place was flourishing then the people wouldn't have sold it", said Mr Huppert. 'All the comments of 'we have just loss this', 'we have just lost that', this asset wasn't supported. 'The question is not should we have been allowed to come and do what we did, the question is why did the locals and whoever has bad feelings about what we have done, where has their support been all these years prior, it's easier to come back in hindsight.'


Telegraph
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Lake District should be for everyone, not just virtue-signalling weekend walkers
The fraught relationship between social media and hospitality hit a new high point in June – 1,500 feet above sea-level in fact – when a rumour got out that Cumbria's highest pub, the Kirkstone Pass Inn, had been turned into a stag and hen party venue. 'What have you done to this historic and beautiful pub,' bewailed @ramblingartist on Instagram. 'Seeing this saddens me.' 'You've ruined an historic building and beautiful listed pub,' complained @pippin_hort. 'Lost forever, it's horrible and not 'in keeping' at all with the ethos. Where's your planning application? I'm so upset.' And so on, and so on – in the long scroll of angry comments in the feed belonging to Supreme Escapes, the lettings company credited with – or damned for – the refurbishment. The pictures show fairly innocuous interior decor. It's not bare stone walls, four-posters and sheepskin rugs, for sure; but nor is it a blinged-up eyesore. Jerry Huppert, a partner in Supreme Escapes, told a local radio station that the building was being sensitively renovated and the firm had already spent about £3 million on the project.


BBC News
20-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Revamped Kirkstone Pass Inn will 'not be aimed' at hens and stags
The newest owners of a historical pub have dismissed rumours its rooms may be marketed at stag and hen highest pub, the Kirkstone Pass Inn, had provided respite for travellers for centuries and was bought by Supreme Escapes in firm is renovating the already existing rooms and turning the old keeper's house into holiday accommodation, but said the bar area would not change and operate for the public, whether there was a booking or Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA) said it recognised concerns about "potential loss of historic character" and had opened an investigation to monitor the use of the building. The centuries-old former pub stands at 1,481ft (451m) above sea level, on an exposed hillside above was frequented by visitors who made it up the Kirkstone Pass - known locally as "the struggle" - before it was put on the market in 2021, sitting empty for works sparked concerns online about the future use of the site and whether the changes were kept within the building's character and location. 'Almost derelict' Jerry Huppert, a partner in Supreme Escapes, told BBC Radio Cumbria the building was being renovated sympathetically and they had already spend about £3m on the building."The pub was very, very tired - almost derelict beyond repair," he added while located four miles (6.4km) away from the nearest neighbours, the accommodation was not being marketed to hen and stag parties - as had been speculated added: "Although our company generally specialises in holiday lets, we have recently moved into a new business model of boutique hotels and this is our first one."The building would also continue to operate as a pub, Mr Huppert said, and he was hoping it would reopen in the summer. Car park plans Planning manager for LDNPA Julie Birkett said the building was not listed and therefore internal works did not require planning permission, "regardless of their impact on internal historic features or character".She added a previous investigation concluded the building's new and renewed roughcast render was not an act of development as defined by law, and therefore did not need planning had also been raised online about preserving public access to the pub's car park, which is used by Huppert said there was a long lease on the carpark to the LDNPA."We have approached [the LDNPA] to see what their plan is at the end of the lease and they said they will touch base to us about a year or two before the end of the lease," he LDNPA confirmed the lease was due to expire in 2029 and renewal options would be considered closer to that date. Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.