There has been a palace on this site for not much short of 1,000 years. From here the medieval bishops ran the huge Diocese of Lincoln, which at that time stretched from the Humber to the Thames and from Cambridgeshire to the edge of the West Midlands. Medieval buildings and romantic ruins are still in evidence and surround one side of our front courtyard and the eastern boundary of our garden. The ruins of the Medieval Bishop Palace are managed by English Heritage.
The building that you see today was built on medieval foundations in three phases. The earliest visible part is a roughly square area built in 1720 forming the South West corner of the palace, at the centre of which is a classical Georgian panelled staircase. Ten years later a low range of panelled rooms was added, running north towards the Cathedral and the building then remained unchanged for a centenary and a half until 1885.
In that year Edward King was appointed Bishop of Lincoln and decided to move the Episcopal seat back into the centre of Lincoln. He chose the site of the Medieval Palace and set about expanding and remodelling the Georgian building into his new residence. The exterior of much of the building, including the entrance and most of the garden elevations, date from that time.
In 1948 the Bishop of Lincoln moved to a smaller house on the north side of the Cathedral and the palace went through a number of different phases over successive decades.
In 2007 a major refurbishment was undertaken, the aim of which was to restore the building in sympathy with its various period interiors, whilst creating a comfortable and elegant environment. Finally, in July 2009, The Old Palace opened its doors once again, offering sophisticated conference, dining and reception facilities with luxurious accommodation.
In 2011 it was decided to extend the services offered and open The Old Palace as a hotel. The adjacent redundant church St. Michael on the Mount was bought to create 16 additional bedrooms for The Old Palace Hotel. The hotel opened in March 2012 with 16 bedrooms in the main house. Only four months later, the new bedrooms in the former church, now called The Old Palace Lodge, were finished, increasing the number of bedrooms at The Old Palace to 32 comfortable classic rooms, master rooms and suites.
To be honest, I don’t like the idea of turning historic buildings into private residential units. But hotels are reasonably acceptable, as long as you’re their paying customer and they let you in to see what’s inside. I think the best way to reuse disused buildings is to convert them into public buildings like art galleries, museums, pubs, etc
In an ideal world historic buildings would be maintained and restored for future generations to enjoy (for free). But in the real world funding has to be found from somewhere to enable this.
Many of the museums and art galleries in the UK are currently publicly funded but the outgoing Government (maybe incoming Government) would rather they be funded by fees from those that visit those places.