History
When la Gondola opened in 1968 its Italian owners brought the glamour of Venice to Darby. It was the place to be seen, and in its heyday, it was the most important hotel in Derby with a string of famous guests.
It's a 125 seater Restaurant with a 21 bedroom Hotel attached..
Sadly its popularity started to decline and in 2005 new owner Daniela Bayfield invested £500 000 in to the business with dreams of turning the place around.
Daniela had been involved in La Gondola since it opened and celebrated her 21st birthday there. She even had her wedding at La Gondola!.
Shortly after taking over the business Daniela enlisted the help of top TV chef Gordon Ramsey with the business featuring in his hit TV show “Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares”.
Unfortunately Gordon's help wasn't enough to save La Gondola from sinking. Sadly, in 2008, the business went into voluntary liquidation.
La Gondola did re launch as a wedding venue in 2009 but in the last decade the building has fallen in to a state of disrepair.
Then sadly on the 1st July 2009 Daniela passed away, aged 72 peacefully in her sleep.
In 2012, a planning application was submitted to demolish part of the building to build a 20-room apartment block for guests, but the plans did not come to fruition.
In June this year it was reported that La gondola had been sold for £745,000 and that the new owners plan to demolish the former hotel & restaurant and build 74 apartments in a four-and-a-half storey building.
The Explore
I had forgotten all about this place until I read online that it had been recently sold.
I had brief memories of seeing it on kitchen nightmares years go, so decided to re watch the episode before going.
We arrived early as it sites on a busy main road just outside the city center, not entirely sure if it was accessible or not we hopped over the fencing and up to the building.
With no form of security other than warnings of CCTV written in black paint across the boarded up windows (which didn't exist) we just needed to find a way in.
This proved surprisingly easier than expected.
We were in!, sadly the place is wrecked and looked completely unrecognizable.
A dining table still stood laid ready for guests that would never arrive.
Parts of the restaurant floor had completely gone leaving just the concrete foundations.
The kitchen, trashed with dishes in the sink still waiting to be washed!
We then headed upstairs to the rooms which were also completely trashed.
Some parts to soggy and dangerous to see so we decided we had covered all we could and left.
Knowing the history of this place and how much the owner loved and tried to make it a success it was quite sad to see it in such a bad state.
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When la Gondola opened in 1968 its Italian owners brought the glamour of Venice to Darby. It was the place to be seen, and in its heyday, it was the most important hotel in Derby with a string of famous guests.
It's a 125 seater Restaurant with a 21 bedroom Hotel attached..
Sadly its popularity started to decline and in 2005 new owner Daniela Bayfield invested £500 000 in to the business with dreams of turning the place around.
Daniela had been involved in La Gondola since it opened and celebrated her 21st birthday there. She even had her wedding at La Gondola!.
Shortly after taking over the business Daniela enlisted the help of top TV chef Gordon Ramsey with the business featuring in his hit TV show “Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares”.
Unfortunately Gordon's help wasn't enough to save La Gondola from sinking. Sadly, in 2008, the business went into voluntary liquidation.
La Gondola did re launch as a wedding venue in 2009 but in the last decade the building has fallen in to a state of disrepair.
Then sadly on the 1st July 2009 Daniela passed away, aged 72 peacefully in her sleep.
In 2012, a planning application was submitted to demolish part of the building to build a 20-room apartment block for guests, but the plans did not come to fruition.
In June this year it was reported that La gondola had been sold for £745,000 and that the new owners plan to demolish the former hotel & restaurant and build 74 apartments in a four-and-a-half storey building.
The Explore
I had forgotten all about this place until I read online that it had been recently sold.
I had brief memories of seeing it on kitchen nightmares years go, so decided to re watch the episode before going.
We arrived early as it sites on a busy main road just outside the city center, not entirely sure if it was accessible or not we hopped over the fencing and up to the building.
With no form of security other than warnings of CCTV written in black paint across the boarded up windows (which didn't exist) we just needed to find a way in.
This proved surprisingly easier than expected.
We were in!, sadly the place is wrecked and looked completely unrecognizable.
A dining table still stood laid ready for guests that would never arrive.
Parts of the restaurant floor had completely gone leaving just the concrete foundations.
The kitchen, trashed with dishes in the sink still waiting to be washed!
We then headed upstairs to the rooms which were also completely trashed.
Some parts to soggy and dangerous to see so we decided we had covered all we could and left.
Knowing the history of this place and how much the owner loved and tried to make it a success it was quite sad to see it in such a bad state.
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