Well Christmas has come and gone at Beales Hotels with some of the busiest days in the calendar now behind us.
West Lodge Park guests enjoyed a lovely selection of carols on Christmas Eve and on the big day we were full with guests enjoying family Christmas lunches in every corner of the hotel. We had some celebrity guests in as well who shall remain nameless !
Beales Hotel is not the obvious place for Christmas day lunch but there too many people enjoyed a relaxed day with family and friends and away from the washing up !
On the 28th December the Cedar Restaurant closed for the last time and the fnatastic team at West Lodge Park all came to work in jeans to strip the place bare of all its fixtures and fittings.
The restaurant and bar have been open continuously since June 1971 with only brief interludes for new carpets and curtains every decade or so - a total of 36 1/2 years.
Even on a conservative estimate of a total of 100 people a day enjoying breakfast, morning coffee, lunch or bar meal, afternoon tea, and dinner - this means that 1'332'200 guests have been served here during this time !
Imagine the memories of all those people, the things they have spoken about, the heartache and the happiness during those years ! If walls could only talk ....
All that is now in the past as we move forward to the present with the refurbishment of the area now full under way. We are on target to reopen as the Mary Beale restaurant on the 3rd March, and in the meantime are fully open for breakfast, morning coffee, lunch, bar meals, afternoon tea and dinner 7 days a week.
May I take the opportunity to wish all our Beales Blog readers a very happy new year.
Andrew
December 22, 2008 - 05:52 PM Andrew Beale
Well what a beautiful concert at West Lodge Park yesterday evening.
A lovely harp duo of Keziah Thomas and Eleanor Turner entertained us with a Christmas themed evening.
It is rare anywhere to be able to be as close to top professional musicians as it is possible to be in a West Lodge Park concert setting.
The music was powerful in its brilliance and the combination of two harpists at the top of their career was a joy for all to see.
Meanwhile the party night season has ended at both hotels with the staff taking a well earned break before the week picks up again for Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day lunch where over 300 guests at the two hotels will enjoy a fine meal and forget about the credit crunch for a while at least.
Sunday 28th December is a big day for the Cedar Restaurant at West Lodge Park as it closes for the last time in its current form for a two month shutdown and refurb.
Nevertheless we are very much open for business in the New Year with all meals being served in the beautiful setting of the Lancaster room, and the bar area will be in the King Charles room. The hotel will feel a little smaller during this time but the standards of food and service will be very much maintained.
This is likely to be the last Beales Blog before the festive period so may I take the opportunity to wish all our readers a very merry Christmas and a happy new Year.
Andrew
December 11, 2008 - 01:11 PM Andrew Beale
This is the busiest week of the year at Beales Hotels with all the teams working hard to look after our guests.
Despite the credit crunch, people still need a bop and a laugh at Christmas and we have been offering Martin Keane - dj at West Lodge Park, and The Funk Monkeys - live music at Beales Hotel, to entertain our guests.
Bedroom 41 at West Lodge Park is now open and bedroom 42 will be finished before Christmas as will the Magnolia Conference suite.
All eyes turn next to the closure of the Cedar Restaurant for two months on the 28th December, while we strip out the whole area ready for reopening as the smart new Mary Beale Restaurant on the 3rd March.
In the meantime we will continue serving breakfast, morning coffee, lunches, afternoon teas, and dinner, mainly using the Lancaster and King Charles rooms both of which we set up recently and they looked stunning !
Don't forget the wonderful Harp duo concert at West Lodge Park on the evening of Sunday 21st December - the antidote to discos and party nights for those with more civilised tastes !Details are on the special events page of this website.
Still room on Christmas day at both hotels if you can't face waking up at 6am to put the turkey on - or worse, the mountain of washing up as the James Bond film starts ! Enjoy instead a relaxed lunch on this special day with a present for each of your family, at either the stunningly modern Beales Hotel or the traditional West Lodge Park.
New Years Eve is another key date for many people and with live bands playing at both hotels you have the choice of entertainment through to midnight and beyond.
Finally pick up a copy of the new Special Events 2009 brochure now out at West Lodge Park. Also available as a download, but sometimes it is nice to have a proper printed brochure - and we can easily send one to you - just contact us through the website.
December 04, 2008 - 02:16 PM Valerie Campbell
On our forever changing website, check out the Corporate and Leisure pages where we are now offering our guests special privileged rates at Trent Park Equestrian Centre adding more variety and opportunity in leisure pursuits.
December 02, 2008 - 10:47 AM Andrew Beale
News from Beales Hotels at this time of year is obviously dominated by the Christmas season with many parties being held at both hotels by both local companies and organisations and private groups of friends. Although Christmas will be a more muted affair than in previous years with the impact of the recession affecting everybody, I detect a determination by our guests to enjoy an evening out depite all the bad news around.
We have just had an inspection by the AA at West Lodge Park and have come out once again as the joint highest rated four star hotel in Herts and surrounding counties, matched only by Beales Hotel with the identical rating !
On the 21st December at West Lodge Park there is a very fine harp duo concert evening for those of us who prefer more civilised evenings rather than the disco party night kind of night out. For those who haven't been to a concert at West Lodge Park before, they are wonderful, with sparkling wine and canapes to start, then starter and main course in the Cedar Restaurant followed by the first half of the concert. During the interval we have dessert and coffee, then move back for the second half of the recital, and finish off the evening with tea with the artists.
Today the Christmas menus start at both hotels - the first of many portions of turkey to be served - and I am pleased to say it is local, from the Herts/Cambs borders near Royston.
Finally, yet another bedroom has been refurbished at West Lodge Park - bedroom 41 is ready to let from tomorrow with a stunning blue and silver scheme, and wonderful views over the Enfield Chase. Already work has started on bedroom 42 to bring it up to the same standard.
Chain hotels often cut expenditure in their hotels to the bone in times of recession - we are fortunate in being able to take advantage of quieter times to get on with refurbishment of bedrooms, restauran, bar etc and the hotels will be all the better for it when better times come back.
November 22, 2008 - 11:47 AM Andrew Beale
A tremendous evening last night when 80 people enjoyed a virtuoso performance of A Christmas Carol with Gerald Dickens, the great great grandson of Charles Dickens.
West Lodge Park looked its best for this wonderful concert evening with a great atmosphere, a roaring log fire, champagne and canapes, and delicious food cooked by Wayne Turner and his team.
Beales Hotel also looks tremendous in this Christmas season with stunning new decorations, jet black Christmas trees, new artwork, and a fantastic menu by Chef Michael Lecouteur and his team.
This is a happy time of year at both hotels, and a joy to be part of such a great group of people.
We have the sad news that our Sales Manager Sally Wilkinson has decided to retire at the end of January - she has been with Beales Hotels since 1994 and has overseen many improvements and changes in that time including the spectacular demolition of Hatfield Lodge and the new Beales Hotel rising up from the rubble ! She will be missed by her many contacts in businesses and organisations in North London and Hertfordshire.
This week we had the final meeting concerning the redevelopment of the Terrace Bar and Cedar Restaurant at West Lodge Park. It is incredibly exciting to think that work starts in just 5 weeks time in creating a wonderful new bar and restaurant with a new bar area, new breakfast and lunch buffet area, glorious new artwork by Mary Beale (Britain's first professional woman painter at the time of Charles 11). During the closure West Lodge Park will be very much open for business as usual with all meals served in the Lancaster room - our hotel restaurant until 1971 and now becoming so again for a couple of months in 2009 !
Look out for the new West Lodge Park Special Events Programme for 2009 which is now online on the website - packed full as usual with dozens of events during the course of the year.
November 17, 2008 - 04:53 PM Sally Wilkinson
The start of a sad week as we say goodbye to Lauren Pryor, Business Development Manager for Beales Hotels. Lauren is jetting off to the Southern Hemisphere to have some fun and forget about the credit crunch!! We will miss her and hope she has a fantastic time and sends us lots of emails about her travels. The office will certainly be quieter!
November 10, 2008 - 06:58 PM Andrew Beale
More improvements to our bedrooms at West Lodge Park.
Today we have re-opened our bedroom 58 complete with 4' bed, new window, new wallpaper and fresh paint - this is a single room with a lovely view over the Enfield Chase.
At the end of this week, bedroom 40 re-opens, a double bedroom with stunning views over the front of the hotel, with a flat screen TV, new Hypnos 5' bed, and a complete makeover.
Bedroom 70 in Cedar Lodge was my Grandparent's bedroom for most of their years at West Lodge Park, extra large, very quiet, and with the best views over the formal gardens of the hotel. We have just updated this bedroom with a new sofa bed and a 'wolf fur' bed throw, so that it now looks very smart.
In November and December we are busy on bedrooms 41 and 42 which will receive similar upgrades to 40.
None of this is particularly dramatic news, but is testament to our quiet determination to continue refurbishing our hotels in the midst of a recession - our guests would expect nothing less from us.
November 10, 2008 - 12:46 PM Grant Cook
What a night,Saturday the 8th raining and very windy, but the fireworks still went off with a bang.The terrible thing is i never get to see the display as i have to keep my head down and concentrate on lighting all those fireworks.I do hope all those people who were there enjoyed the display.
November 05, 2008 - 06:30 PM Andrew Beale
At West Lodge Park yesterday we had the Beales Hotels Long Service lunch for all staff who have worked over 5 years with the company.
Not only were there 18 staff who have worked between 5 and 9 years with the company, but 7 between 10 and 14 years, 8 between 15 and 19 years, and 7 over 20 years including a remarkable 3 who have been with Beales for over 35 years.
In all, there were 598 years of service at the lunch. I wonder what other hotel company anywhere can better this, let alone one with only two hotels ?
It was a joy and a privilege to be with such a wonderful group of people who I am proud to call not only colleagues but friends.
