Now a beautiful four 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 was Thomas Sutton (1819–1875) a well known photographer who came to Jersey to take advantage of ‘the clear bright light’.
French exile Victor Hugo is reputed to have lived less than a hundred yards from the hotel and 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 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 bought 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.
In 1999 the Arcadian group was purchased by Hand Picked Hotels Ltd. October 2002 saw the commencement of an eight million-pound investment into L’Horizon which was completed in March 2006. As a result of re-development, all 106 bedrooms rooms were completely refurbished, including two disabled access rooms. The public areas were also refurbished along with the restaurants and spa and leisure facility. In 2014 a new spa was opened including six treatment rooms, a relaxation area, pedicure and manicure area and a sleep room.
