Photo by Gail Fogarty. Makeup by Rakhi Purohit.
INSPIRING WOMAN HEADER
The Lady ON THE HILL
Diane Tapner-Evans shares her experience as Richmond Hill’s longest serving female general manager Our Editor Marja-Leena chats with Diane Tapner-Evans at Richmond Hill Hotel
I
’ve been the general manager of Richmond Hill Hotel, on and off, for more than 17 years and my journey at the hotel started nearly three decades ago. In many ways, our green corner of the capital reminds me of the home where I grew up in Kent - the garden of England. It was there that I grew to love the outdoors and horse riding as a child, and still love pursuing both of these activities in our leafy London suburb. My career in hospitality really started when I went to Bournemouth University, to study a BSc in Hotel
Management. Studying by the sea was utterly inspiring and, after a brief stint of graduate underwriting work in London I started my first job at Richmond Hill Hotel in 1991. I then worked my way through restaurant manager and operations roles before becoming general manager at the start of the millennium and heading up the team until 2007 when it was time to take on some exciting new career challenges. So in 2007, with a husband and three children in tow, I moved to Maidenhead where I launched the opening of the Harte and Garter Hotel in Windsor. This was an extremely exciting chapter in my hospitality career and I learnt the importance
of effective recruitment as without the right people alongside you it is difficult to deliver your vision. I returned to Richmond Hill Hotel 10 years ago now and have loved every moment of working here. I’ll always look at Richmond Hill Hotel as the loveliest old building in the town, steeped in history since its opening as the “Queens Hotel” back in 1723. Since returning as general manager, we’ve lovingly refurbished every aspect of the original Georgian property, maintaining many of the original eighteenth century features and bringing out the period beauty which in some other locations has been lost sadly.
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read more at darlingmagazine.co.uk spring 20
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