Grantham’s Angel Delight

The future’s looking bright for one historic hotel

It’s possibly the worst-kept secret that the hospitality industy’s had a tough time of it over the last year or so, but if aliens were to visit Grantham, Lincolnshire, and step into the Angel and Royal, they’d be none the wiser.

And most of that’s down to the current owner, Dean Harrison, who took over the hotel in June 2020 and is well and truly making his mark.

An ex-chef-turned-hotelier, Dean has worked extensively in London, with stints at the Pinehurst in Bournemouth, as well as the Hill Carter, Hartlepool, rounding off an impressive CV. So that’s the qualifications in order, but what really attracted him to one of the world’s oldest hotels – established in 1203, no less – in the first place?

There’s no doubt that it is, as Dean puts it, “an amazing building”, but he also happens to be originally from the area, even working in the restaurant back when he was at catering college: “I’d been looking at it for a year and knew what I was getting into. The business compared to that in London is different, with a different demographic, but being a hotelier is exactly the same.”

It’s been suggested that during the pandemic, media coverage was focused on pubs, clubs and restaurants, and that hotels were an overlooked sector of the hospitality industry: “I’ve no idea,” says Dean, “I’ve been too busy working to notice!

“We’re not changing the historical aspects, but have replaced all the bathrooms for example. All the changes are cosmetic, nothing structural and nothing we’d need permission for. We’ve refurbished all parts of the hotel, including the derelict stables that haven’t been in use for hundreds of years.”

And what would Grantham be like without its Medieval masterpiece? “Dull”. Maybe the change in the landscape wouldn’t be that seismic, but the town would be missing a unique slice of the past that, thankfully, seems in very safe hands.