Airport hotel sold for £5.25m

The Croydon Posthouse hotel has been sold for about £5.25m to local businessman John Power. He is chairman of the Westmead Business Group, which owns the Airport House International Business Centre next to the hotel.

The 83-bedroom art deco-style hotel was part of Croydon Airport, which was London's main airport from the 1920s until it closed in 1959.

The hotel was used as an RAF hospital during the Second World War, when the airport played a front-line role in the Battle of Britain. The new owners will give it back its original name, the Aerodrome hotel, and carry out refurbishment.

It is the fifth Posthouse that agent Christie & Co has sold on behalf of Six Continents. The remaining four are in Stockon-on-Tees, Co Durham; Dover, Kent; Nottingham, and Manchester.

Their sale will spell the end of the Posthouse name. In April last year Six Continents bought the entire Posthouse business, consisting of 79 hotels.

Since then it has rebranded them as Holiday Inns.

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 28 March - 3 April 2002