The Story Behind Our New Luxury Rooms at Guy Fawkes Inn
Five years, more than £3 million and a Grade I listed building: the story behind our biggest project yet
When we first bought the building next door to Guy Fawkes Inn, we knew we had taken on something special.
We also knew we had taken on a serious challenge.
The Grade I listed building at 23 High Petergate had most recently been used as offices. It had plenty of architectural charm and enormous potential, but it was in poor condition and had not been used as part of a hotel for many years.
Our original ambition was relatively simple: bring the building back to life and create some beautiful new bedrooms for guests staying at Guy Fawkes Inn.
What followed was anything but simple.
Five years later, after more than three years of planning, two years of construction and an investment of more than £3 million, the doors to our new accommodation are finally open.
Guy Fawkes Inn has more than doubled in size, growing from 13 bedrooms to 27.
And while the finished rooms might make the whole thing look rather effortless, getting here was one of the most complicated projects we’ve ever undertaken.
It started with the building next door
Guy Fawkes Inn has always been a little different from a conventional hotel.
Our existing bedrooms occupy historic buildings on High Petergate, directly opposite York Minster, and the Inn itself is steeped in the history of the city.
The opportunity to acquire the building immediately next door was therefore incredibly exciting.
The property at 23 High Petergate is a Grade I listed building with its own remarkable history and architectural significance. For us, it offered the chance not only to expand the Inn but to bring a neglected historic building back into use.
We purchased the property in 2021, when it was still being used as offices.
At that point, we envisaged a project costing around £1 million.
That figure now seems rather optimistic.
Three years just to get planning permission
One of the first things we discovered was that transforming a Grade I listed building into a modern hotel is not something that can be rushed.
Before we could even start the main work, we had to navigate a lengthy planning and heritage process.
It took more than three years to obtain planning permission.
That meant working closely with local planners, heritage specialists and consultants to find solutions that would allow us to create high-quality hotel accommodation while protecting the historic fabric of the building.
There were countless discussions about what could be changed, what had to remain and how modern hotel requirements could be introduced without compromising the building’s character.
Fire regulations were a particularly good example.
A modern hotel needs to meet strict fire safety requirements, but achieving that in a centuries-old listed building isn’t as straightforward as it would be in a newly constructed hotel.
Every intervention had to be carefully considered.
We couldn’t simply run new services wherever we wanted, remove walls without thought or replace historic features with modern equivalents.
The building came first.
From a £1 million project to more than £3 million
When we originally looked at the project, we expected the investment to be somewhere in the region of £1 million.
As the work progressed, that number changed dramatically.
The final investment has exceeded £3 million.
That’s a significant difference, but it reflects the reality of working with a historic Grade I listed property.
There are costs associated with conservation, specialist craftsmanship, heritage consultants and finding solutions to problems that simply wouldn’t exist in a modern building.
We also made a conscious decision not to cut corners.
As Simon Cotton, Managing Director of the Fat Badger Group, explains:
“It was a five-year project. It’s the longest project we have ever had.”
That is a considerable amount of time for any hotel development.
But the alternative would have been to do less, and we didn’t want to do that.
A building worth protecting
The commercial case for the project wasn’t always straightforward.
Simon has been open about that.
“Looked purely as a commercial exercise, it probably would not have made sense five years ago. But once we got it, we had to carry on.”
That’s perhaps the simplest way of explaining the approach we took.
Once we had committed to the building, we felt a responsibility to do something worthwhile with it.
It would have been easy to treat 23 High Petergate simply as an opportunity to create additional hotel bedrooms.
Instead, we saw an opportunity to preserve an important part of York’s architectural heritage and give it a sustainable future.
As Simon puts it:
“But the building is preserved for the future. It is a Grade I listed building, converted from a multi-use office block to a hotel.”
That is something we are particularly proud of.
Two years of bringing it to life
After more than three years of planning, we finally received approval in February 2024.
At that point, we could actually begin turning the plans into reality.
We initially hoped to complete the project in time for Bonfire Night later that year.
As anyone involved in a major construction project will know, things don’t always go according to schedule.
The work took around another two years to complete.
There were delays, complications and plenty of moments when seemingly simple jobs became anything but simple.
Working within a Grade I listed building means that you have to expect surprises.
You might uncover something that changes the way a particular area needs to be approached. A modern installation might need to be redesigned to protect historic fabric. A particular finish might not be appropriate. Something that looks straightforward on a plan can become much more complicated when you’re standing inside a building that has been evolving for centuries.
That is simply the reality of conservation work.
Getting the details right
The finished rooms might look effortless, but an enormous amount of thought went into the details.
We wanted the new bedrooms to feel luxurious without looking like they had been dropped into an old building.
The interiors needed to complement the architecture rather than compete with it.
That meant sourcing a mixture of genuine antiques and carefully selected new furniture designed to look as though it belonged in the building.
The result is a collection of bedrooms with a sense of history, but with all the comforts you’d expect from a modern four-star hotel.
Particular attention was paid to everything from the windows and coving to the carpets, tiling, lighting and bathrooms.
The bathrooms themselves presented their own challenges, as did the electrics and other modern services that had to be introduced into a historic building.
None of these things are particularly glamorous when you’re in the middle of a construction project.
But they make a huge difference to the finished result.
Luxury rooms with a sense of history
The new bedrooms are now open, and the response from guests has been fantastic.
They have been designed as a collection of luxury Heritage Rooms, each with its own character and connection to the building.
Some feature elegant four-poster beds, while others offer views towards York Minster.
Period-inspired furnishings and architectural details sit alongside modern bathrooms and contemporary comforts.
The intention was never to create rooms that looked artificially old.
Instead, we wanted them to feel as though they had naturally evolved within the building.
That is a subtle distinction, but an important one.
You should be able to walk into one of the new rooms and feel that you’re staying somewhere with a story.
The view doesn’t need improving
Of course, there is one feature of the new rooms that required absolutely no interior design at all.
York Minster.
The building sits directly opposite the Minster, giving some of our new rooms extraordinary views across one of the most recognisable landmarks in the country.
It is difficult to improve upon that.
After all the work that went into the rooms, it is quite satisfying to open the curtains and be reminded that the most impressive feature of all has been there for centuries.
A completely new lease of life
The building we bought in 2021 is almost unrecognisable compared with what stood there before.
What was once a multi-use office building is now part of one of York’s best-known historic inns.
It has gone from being in a poor state of repair to becoming a collection of elegant hotel bedrooms designed to welcome visitors from around the world.
That is the transformation we are most proud of.
Simon describes it as:
“A remarkable transformation that has been done very sympathetically in line with English Heritage and local planners.”
And that’s exactly what we set out to achieve.
We didn’t want to simply refurbish the building.
We wanted to protect it.
More than just an extension
The new bedrooms are also part of a wider investment in Guy Fawkes Inn.
Around 18 months ago, we extended the Inn’s beer garden, creating more outdoor space for guests in the centre of York.
Together with the new accommodation, that investment has allowed us to take Guy Fawkes Inn to another level.
The Inn now offers significantly more accommodation while retaining the historic character that makes it such a distinctive place to stay.
Guests can enjoy the pub and restaurant, relax in the beer garden, explore York from an unbeatable central location and, at the end of the day, return to a beautifully designed historic bedroom.
It feels like a natural evolution of the Inn rather than a complete change of direction.
Why we decided to do it
A £3 million-plus investment and five-year project is not something you undertake casually.
There were certainly easier and more commercially straightforward ways of adding 14 bedrooms to a hotel.
But that wasn’t really the point.
We had the opportunity to take on a remarkable building in one of the best locations in York and give it a future.
Once we had seen what was possible, we didn’t want to do it by halves.
The result is a larger Guy Fawkes Inn, but more importantly, a building that has been carefully restored and given a new purpose.
It is now somewhere that people can stay rather than simply walk past.
And we think that is something York can be proud of.
From 13 bedrooms to 27
The numbers tell part of the story. Guy Fawkes Inn originally had 13 bedrooms and now has 27, with the additional 14 rooms representing a major expansion for the Inn and one of the largest investments the Fat Badger Group has made in a single property. But the figures alone don’t really capture what has gone into getting to this point. This has been a five-year project in total, involving more than three years spent navigating planning and heritage approvals, followed by around two years of construction work on site. In that time, more than £3 million has been invested into a Grade I listed building, alongside countless conversations with planners, heritage specialists, architects and contractors, and a huge amount of care taken at every stage to ensure the building was treated properly. That, ultimately, is the story behind the new rooms.
The next chapter for Guy Fawkes Inn
Guy Fawkes Inn has been part of York’s High Petergate for centuries.
The building has seen the city change around it, survived generations of different uses and remained part of one of York’s most famous streets.
Now, after five years of work, we’re adding another chapter to that story.
The new Heritage Rooms are open, the building has a new lease of life and guests can once again experience this remarkable part of York from the inside.
For us, the most satisfying thing is knowing that the work wasn’t simply about creating more hotel rooms.
We have taken a Grade I listed building that was in poor repair and invested heavily in protecting it for the future.
That is something worth taking our time over.
And we think the finished result was worth the wait.
Stay in our new Heritage Rooms
The new Heritage Rooms at Guy Fawkes Inn are now available to book, with a range of luxury rooms including Heritage King Rooms, Four Poster Rooms and rooms overlooking York Minster.
If you’re looking for a historic hotel in York, a hotel near York Minster or simply somewhere with a little more character than the average city-centre stay, we’d love you to experience what we’ve spent the last five years creating.
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