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A thirty-room hotel at the foot of the South Downs, opening its restaurant this autumn. Help us finish it, and be in the room when it opens.
The Tollgate has stood at the foot of the Downs in Bramber, West Sussex, since 1820. For the last couple of years it stood empty, and it was at risk of being redeveloped and lost for good.
We’re Jack and Danny. We’ve been friends for seventeen years, and we live and breathe hospitality. It all started with The Castle Inn, just down the road. When The Tollgate came up, we couldn’t let it go.
In May we got the keys. Within weeks the first rooms were full, with no advertising and no agency, run by the team from The Castle Inn a hundred metres up the road. People just came.
We’ll be honest with you. Bringing an old building back to life costs more, and takes longer, than anyone ever plans for. We’ve put more than £300,000 of our own money in, and our team has given it everything. The tea lounge is finished. The kitchen is going in, and Coal Restaurant, a dream we’ve been carrying for six years, is so close we can almost taste it. After that come the cocktail bar, private dining rooms, the rest of the bedrooms, and a wellness suite that already has planning. The first weddings are in the book.
But we can’t get over the finish line on our own. We could have gone to the bank or found a big investor. Instead, we’d rather finish it with the people who’ll actually sit in it.
So this is the offer. Back us now and we thank you in kind: dinner at the Coal Restaurant, a night upstairs, your name on the wall. Some of you will have your name on a room. A few of you will have a seat at the Founders' table every year, for three years. There are seven ways in, six of them capped, and when they're gone they're gone.
We close at the end of December with a supper for everyone who’s in. We’d love you to be there.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 31st December 2026 at 12:00pm