ONE of the best-known hotels in Ipswich is to close in the summer, The Evening Star can reveal today.The Marlborough in Henley Road is to close its doors when the new Salthouse Harbour Hotel opens on Ipswich Waterfront.

ONE of the best-known hotels in Ipswich is to close in the summer, The Evening Star can reveal today.

The Marlborough in Henley Road is to close its doors when the new Salthouse Harbour Hotel opens on Ipswich Waterfront.

The Marlborough, developed out of a large Victorian house, is to revert back to its former use – the site is to be redeveloped for housing.

Hotel owner Robert Gough said today that everyone who had booked functions at the Marlborough during the second half of the year would be found alternative arrangements.

And all the Marlborough's staff will transfer to the new hotel which is scheduled to open in June.

The Salthouse Harbour Hotel is being built in the former John Good Shipping offices, and will have 43 bedrooms on seven floors.

It will be Ipswich's first four-star hotel with penthouse suites on the top floor which will have stunning views over the Waterfront to the Orwell Bridge.

The Marlborough was a bed and breakfas business when it was bought by the Gough family.

Extensions were built, giving the hotel 22 bedrooms, and its business developed over the years.

It has become one of the best-known hotels in the town and also caters for a number of functions.

When the laws about civil weddings were relaxed, it was given a licence to hold marriages.

"At the Salthouse Harbour Hotel we will be concentrating on the residential, hotel bedroom business," said Mr Gough.

"There are many other places in the Waterfront area with function rooms – so we will be concentrating on the hotel side."

But he was anxious to assure those who had booked functions later in the year that they would be fine.

"We do have some functions booked, including a few weddings, but I have asked a senior member of staff to help those clients find alternative arrangements.

"We may be able to cater for some at the Waterfront – but there may be other arrangements that are more suitable.

"We will be working the clients to sort their individual requirements out. We will not be abandoning anyone."

The Marlborough is to be taken over by local developers Greystoke and Everleigh which are to redevelop it as homes.

"There will be a mixture of flats and new homes on that site – an application is being submitted to the planning authority today," said Mr Gough.

"I don't know exactly what will happen there, but it is a conservation area.

"I expect the original building will be converted into flats and the 1960s extensions will go," Mr Gough added.

He runs the Marlborough Hotel and the Angel Hotel in Bury St Edmunds with his wife Karen, and said he was looking forward to his company's new era.

"It is very exciting looking forward to the opening of the new hotel, we are convinced great things are happening in Ipswich," he said.

"And we are pleased to be able to return the Marlborough to its original use – it is in a residential area of the town."

Fastfacts:

The Marlborough was originally Victorian – with extensions built in the 1960s.

It became a hotel when bought by the Gough family in 1965.

Most of its 22 bedrooms are in the modern extensions.

Its function room can hold about 40 people – but a big wedding can take over the whole building.

Civil weddings have been held at the hotel since the law allowing buildings to be licensed for these was passed in 1994.

Weblink: www.themarlborough.co.uk