Now a luxury 4 star hotel of international standing, L’Horizon was originally built as a private seaside villa in 1850 when its name was Aliwal. The house originally belonged to George Hicks, a Colonel in the Bengal Army and Grandfather of the famous actor-writer Sir Seymour Hicks, who built London ’s Globe Theatre.

 

One of the first, and perhaps the most interesting of the owners of the original house was Thomas Sutton (1819–1875) a well known photographer who came to Jersey to take advantage of ‘the clear bright light’ of the Island.

 

French exile, Victor Hugo, is reputed to have lived less than a hundred yards from the hotel and is said to have ‘paced’ St. Brelade’s Beach on most days, apparently deep in thought. Eventually, he was exiled a second time, to Guernsey where he wrote many of his books, including “ Les Miserables”.

 

During the wartime occupation of the Channel Islands (1939-1945) L’Horizon, known as Whitehall at the time, was still a private house and was commandeered by the German High Command and used as a military headquarters.

The Hotel was purchased in 1956 by the Earl of Jersey, Chairman of Associated Hotels Limited and was owned by that company until 1988, when it was purchased by Clipper Hotels. A Leisure Centre, Club L'Horizon, was added in July 1989.

In November 1993, L'Horizon and the Clipper Group were bought by Arcadian International Plc.

In 1998 the Arcadian group was purchased by Hand Picked Hotels Ltd. October 2002 saw the commencement of phase one of an eight million-pound investment into L’Horizon. In this phase of re-development twenty-six rooms were completely refurbished, including two disabled access rooms. Phase two involved the refurbishment of 40 further bedrooms along with the main public areas and conference suites to the highest standard. The final phase was completed in 2006 which concluded with the remainder of our bedrooms. This now means that L'Horizon Hotel & Spa offers exquisitely refurbished facilities for our guests.