FJB Hotels

About FJB Hotels

FJB Hotels is a family owned business founded by Frederick John (FJ to friends and family) Butterworth.

The company’s origins are not in hotels, however, but in theatre, running at one time a chain of eighteen variety theatres throughout England making it the largest, privately owned, theatre company in the country. Tribute to the age of music hall is fittingly paid at the Chine Hotel, often used by visiting artists playing at the Royal Ballrooms (now the Opera House) with a magnificent display of photographs of stars of the day.

In the 1950s, FJ recognised the decline in popularity of live theatre and moved his interests, almost exclusively, to hotels. The Company has retained the beautiful Richmond Theatre in Surrey, currently leased to the Ambassadors Theatre Group, for ‘old time’s sake’.

Over the next thirty years, many hotels were bought and sold, primarily in the Bournemouth area and latterly on the Sandbanks peninsula. There was also one hotel, The Grosvenor, across the water in Swanage, sold in 1985 but which has always held a special place in the heart of the present Managing Director, John Butterworth, son of the late founder.

The Group is now comprised of four superb hotels, The Haven, The Sandbanks and Harbour Heights Hotel on the Sandbanks peninsula and The Chine Hotel in Boscombe.

The Company’s other, and highly diverse, interests include:

• Royal Arcade, Boscombe – Beautiful Victorian shopping arcade just a ten minutes’ walk from the Chine Hotel (purchased 1945).
• The Opera House (formerly The Royal Ballrooms) – the premises underwent a multi-million pound refurbishment in 2006/7 restoring many of its original Victorian features (purchased 1946).
• Villa de Marvol – beautifully appointed Napoleonic villa set in nine acres of wooded gardens in the Dordogne region of France (purchased1988).
• Little Rainbows Nursery – Ofsted registered nursery caring for children from three months to five years (opened 2003).
• Grosvenor Marine – Haven Star – 40 ft. catamaran – the latest (and biggest) in a long line of vessels owned by the Company (purchased 2006).
• Central Reservations Office – providing a ‘one-stop’ booking facility for private and corporate guests alike (launched 2007).
• ......and the newest addition to the family The Watersports Academy – at the Sandbanks Hotel and offering an amazing range of water sports facilities with something for everyone – from the novice to the expert (opened 2008).

Never content to rest on its laurels, the Company is currently investigating the possibility of opening an English Language College based at the Chine Hotel. Students would be offered residential courses, enjoying the high standards of the hotel whilst learning English under the guidance of expert tutors.

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