Birthplace of Diana forced to look for new tenant
Charity Leonard Cheshire gives up lease on late princess’s childhood home after funding problems
THE future use of Diana, Princess of Wales’s childhood home is in limbo after a charity was forced to give up the lease because of financial pressures.
The Queen gave Park House, on the Sandringham Estate, to Leonard Cheshire for a peppercorn rent in 1983, and the charity turned it into a hotel offering respite care for disabled people and their families.
However, having closed the facility last September for major renovation work, t he disability charity has announced the work will not go ahead and it will have to give up its lease after cash resources and fundraising were severely affected by the pandemic.
The estate now hopes to find a new tenant for the property, where Diana Spencer was born on July 1, 1961, and is hoping that it will continue to attract visitors, and income, to the local area.
A spokesman said: “We understand the Leonard Cheshire decision and are sad that their long association with Park House is ending under such circumstances. We will look for a new occupier and hope to find a use that generates similar benefits to the local community and the wider area.”
The Spencer family rented Park House from the Queen from 1954 until 1975. When Diana was 14, they moved to Althorp House, the family’s stately home, after her father John became the eighth Earl Spencer on the death of his father.
The property is just a stone’s throw from the Norfolk coast and a short walk from the Queen’s country residence, Sandringham House.
Leonard Cheshire, whose patron is the Queen, had been hoping to increase the number of bedrooms at the house from 16 to 24.
It also planned to cover its open-air swimming pool and improve disability access, saying it wanted “to offer disabled visitors and their families a worldclass experience at this iconic location”.
Building work costing £2.3 million was due to start this year, but was shelved due to the pandemic. About 70 full and part-time staff at the hotel have been made redundant.
The charity announced the closure of Park House on its website. It said: “Since the original plan of September 2019 detailing an agreement t o spend £2.3 million redeveloping Park House – and match fund the same amount for further investment – cash resources and fundraising have understandably
‘The current fundraising environment is hugely challenging and the costs to undertake the project escalated well beyond the original estimates’
been shifted in response to the pandemic. Costs associated with the project have also risen significantly.
“The current fundraising environment is hugely challenging and the costs to undertake the planned project have escalated well beyond the original estimates. The expenditure would be difficult both in terms of affordability and being the right thing to do for our beneficiaries. We understand the loyalty and affection our regular guests have for the hotel and we will be contacting them individually.”
Phil Davies, from the Companions of Park House support group, said: “We are very sad that this appears to signal the end of Park House as a Leonard Cheshire hotel.
“We are particularly sorry that this fantastic facility will no longer be available for disabled guests and their carers, many of whom were regular visitors as this was the only place available to them for holiday respite.”
Leonard Cheshire founded his own charitable foundation after service as one of the RAF’S youngest commanding officers in the Second World War. He spent eight months leading 617 Squadron – the Dambusters – and became the UK’S most highly decorated bomber pilot when awarded the Victoria Cross in 1944. He began nursing a dying man at his home in Hampshire in 1948 and by the following year he was looking after 24 residents with complex needs, illnesses and impairments.
Mr Cheshire, who married Sue Ryder in 1959, was admitted to the Order of Merit in 1981, and made a life peer in the House of Lords in 1991. He died from the effects of motor neurone disease in 1992, aged 74.