One of England’s finest spa hotels is finally reopen in Derbyshire, as Barrie Farnsworth reports
AT LAST! One of England’s most significant Georgian buildings is finally reopening its doors in Derbyshire…nearly 30 years, and many millions of pounds, since it first lay empty. It is, of course, the Grade 1-listed Buxton Crescent – built by William Cavendish, the 5th Duke of Devonshire, in the late 18th century as a major part of his scheme to establish Buxton as a fashionable spa town. Its famous facade initially housed a hotel, five lodging houses, a grand assembly room and shops in a groundfloor arcade…. and it did indeed transform the town into one of the finest resorts of its day. But by the mid-1980s, the Crescent no longer housed a hotel, only council offices and a library in part of the building, which was finally closed when major structural problems were discovered in the assembly rooms…