Birch Hotel Group’s new site Birch Selsdon is due to open its creatively fuelled hotel and members’ club in spring 2023, and if its sister site, Birch Cheshunt in Hertfordshire, is any indicator, it will deliver on design, culture and cuisine in good measure.
Birch Selsdon offers artful getaway in London's outskirts
Birch Selsdon, located a short drive from East Croydon train station, combines proximity to London with a setting amid a 200-acre estate that cloaks the hotel and club in nature.
A rewilding project, led by designer, maker and environmentalist Sebastian Cox is set to transform the site, previously a golf course, into an ecosystem for free-roaming, self-sustaining herbivores, with long-horned cattle and Exmoor ponies being introduced.
Birch Selsdon hotel, surrounded by greenery in south London
The heart of the site, a 19th-century mansion, has been remodelled by interior design and architecture studio A-nrd and Sella Concept interior studio. A-nrd’s Alessio Nardi and Lukas Persakovas led their team in a respectful redesign of the historic building and have formulated a convergence of classic and contemporary.
‘The approach has been restorative, with loose furniture and items complementing the existing architecture instead of overbuilding,' says Nardi. And in retaining the site's history, 'the building’s Victorian features have inspired the design language. We have incorporated chequered tile flooring but in a more modern way with a mix of terracotta hues instead of traditional quarry tiles.'
The property comprises 180 bedrooms, three bars, two restaurants, a revamped 1930s lido, studios for pottery, screen-printing and cookery, and a co-working hub.
Bedrooms, suites and communal spaces feature bespoke furniture from Sebastian Cox, while art by Olly Fathers, Richard Woods, Weronika Marianna and Laurie Mann fills indoor and outdoor spaces, crafted from birchwood offcut artwork and limited prints to an outdoor installation.
The restaurants are imagined by Sella Concept: the menu will feature freshly foraged ingredients alongside seasonal produce from the kitchen’s garden.
Birch Selsdon will be opening in April 2023 at 126 Addington Road, South Croydon, CR2 8YA
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