Hotel saved by investors poised to reopen

Investigative journalist Roger Cook will be cutting the ribbon in front of 100 invited guests at next Thursday's opening of the Townhouse, formerly known as Owner Hotel Hull.

Former owner, Owner Hotel Management, went into liquidation last July but the original investors – who come from as far away as South Africa and Australia – who had spent between 70,000 and 110,000 to buy 22 of the hotel's 27 rooms – decided not to walk away.

Instead they bought the freehold of the premises from liquidator Ernst and Young and took on hotel management company Assured Hotels to ensure the hotel at 14 Albion Street stayed open and was professionally run.

Mike Rothwell, a consultant at Assured Hotels, said the hotel had made an encouraging start in the past two weeks of trading.

He said: "Hull is crying out for quality accommodation.

"There's various standards but nothing of any real quality that offers something slightly different and because we are only 27 bedrooms and are fairly small we can really focus on what makes the guests' stay.

"It all boils down to service and we deliver what we believe is an excellent level of hospitality."

Guests are personally checked into rooms which offer all the mod cons, from Jacuzzi baths with headrests to free wifi and iPod docking stations.

The Hull Church Institute was originally built in 1846, when Queen Victoria commissioned it as a house for her personal physician, Sir James Anderson.

The hotel still includes many features of the original building, such as the sweeping staircase and ornate pillars which sit alongside a modern Italian marble reception.