The History of the Macdonald Frimley Hall Hotel & Spa, Camberley

The Frimley Hall was designed and built in 1882, by Mr G.W Fowler. Mr Fowler came from a family of great fortune, and once Frimley Hall was built, he later sold it to Mr J.F Wright, whose fortune and fame came from the manufacture of domestic boilers and soap, more famously known as Wrights' Coal Tar Soap, which many people still use today. His wife, formally Miss Avery, came from the family who had manufactured Avery Scales, which were soon to belong to many housewives in the country.

Mr Wright was a keen golfer and built a small golf course in the grounds of Frimley Hall whilst he was the owner. He later decided he wanted something bigger, so after regular meetings attended by the locals and held at Frimley Hall, the keen golfers of Camberley decided to construct what is now Camberley Heath Golf Course.

Frimley Hall was later sold to the Spears Family a few years before the war, who specialised in converting old timbered buildings to modern usage without destroying the buildings character. This was when Frimley Hall became a hotel, with one member of the Spears Family in charge. This family was also to start the development of the local area, and continued to construct Lime Avenue and Crawley Drive, although the development came to a halt when the war commenced and during the Second World War, the British Army commandeered Frimley Hall.

In about 1950, the Spears Family sold Frimley Hall to Mr and Mrs Shepherd, who implemented a number of improvements to the Hall, one of which was the introduction of Dinner Dances for Camberley. Their son is the well-known artist David Shepherd, known for his Elephant and African wild life prints. The Shepherds however retired from hotel-keeping a few years later. Although Frimley Hall has had several owners since then, and undergone some changes, the exterior of the front of the house remains much the same as the idea Mr Fowler had whilst building it, and during the years Mr Wright owned it in the 1920's.

Frimley Hall is a listed building, with listed wallpaper, and is one of the few remaining buildings of this size and age in the area.