Former school set for £90m hotel makeover

Penn School opened in 1921 but has been vacant since 2015

A former school will be turned into a luxury hotel as part of a £90m transformation.

Penn School, which opened in Buckinghamshire in 1921, has been vacant since its closure in 2015.

Rayners Penn Ltd - a company owned by local businessman Peter Kell - and property consultants Lichfields, were given planning permission by Buckinghamshire Council to turn the site into a hotel in October.

Now consent has also been given by the authority to alter some of the Grade II listed buildings on the site.

According to Local Democracy Reporting Service the site has been occupied in some form since at least the medieval period and was bought by solicitor Sir Philip Rose in 1845.

He was an adviser to former Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who bought his country estate at Hughenden Manor around the same time.

An obelisk commemorating Disraeli is one of four Grade II listed buildings on the hotel site, along with Rayners House, the Gardeners' Bothy and Rayners Lodge.

The developers proposed to demolish the 1960s school buildings on the site, which they said were "unsympathetic extensions to the house", and replace them with a fine dining restaurant and cookery school.

They also wanted to restore the conservatory to its original form and revamp an underground service tunnel that would connect Rayners House to a spa which would have a gym, treatment rooms and a swimming pool.

The applicants claimed the new hotel would bring "substantial benefits" to Penn and the wider area while "preserving the estate's rich history".

It added the venture would create about 150 jobs, including "apprenticeship opportunities".