Hotel History

Built in the neo-Jacobean style of many Sussex country houses of the period, South Lodge is an historic hotel in Sussex.  It was developed in several stages by Frederick Du Cane Godman.

Our five star hotel in Sussex was originally built on the site of an existing modest dwelling in 1883, and great care was taken not to disturb the magnificent camellia between the dining room windows. He began his last of the substantial additions in 1911 when the Drawing Room Wing was constructed.

Well travelled

Born in 1834, Frederick Du Cane Godman was a remarkable Victorian imaginative collector, a gentleman explorer, a man of boundless energy and rigorous scholarship.

The third son of Joseph Godman, a partner in Whitbread & Co., Frederick inherited an ample fortune which allowed him to travel the world extensively and later, to amass one of the most important collections of Iznik, Hispano-Mauresque and Persian pottery in the world, which can now be viewed in the British Museum.

He also had a lifelong scientific fascination in all aspects of natural history and in 1876 conceived the idea of publishing the ‘Biologia Centrali Americane’; a monumental classification of the natural history of the Sub-Continent which took 20 years to complete.

Avid Gardeners

Frederick’s second wife, Dame Alice shared her husband’s enthusiasm for gardening and helped gather a superlative collection of rare orchids, alpine plants, magnolias and Rhododendron hybrids - many of which can still be seen around the grounds today. The Godman children, Eva and Edith inherited their parent’s love of travel and flora and fauna. During their long and devoted guardianship of their father’s estate they preserved South Lodge as it has been in his day and maintained the gardens as best they could in the harsher economic climate after World War II.

After the last of the Godman family died in 1982, the house became South Lodge Hotel in July 1985 with Exclusive Hotels investing heavily in the property which they continue to do.