Dark marquess's shooting gallery becomes a happy hotel with nursery

In the bowels of the East Wing of Ickworth House in Suffolk, home of the late 7th Marquess of Bristol, is a door peppered with bullet holes.

As a metaphor for the man who pulled the trigger, it is perhaps apt; broken, splintered and incomplete.

This is where Frederick William John Augustus Hervey, a heroin and cocaine addict, used to amuse himself with the sound of gunfire. The door is still there, preserved under perspex, but the madness of the junkie peer was gone. In its place was children's laughter, because the East Wing, occupied by the family since 1795, opened yesterday as a hotel.

Where Lord Bristol once fired into the door in a damp and unused basement, there is now a nursery for guests' children. If it is possible to find a happy ending to a life that ended in 1999 after industrial levels of drug abuse, an unhappy childhood and a broken marriage, perhaps this is it.

The National Trust, which owns Ickworth House, has leased the East Wing, occupied by the marquess until 1998, to Luxury Family Hotels, a chain that makes a virtue of welcoming children, something Lord Bristol's father, Victor, a womanising cad who was jailed for taking part in a gems raid in Mayfair, did not.

By the time the 7th Marquess died, at the age of 44, weighing just six stones, the East Wing had become neglected, a sad place where he had been left alone with his memories of his wife, Francesca Fisher, who left him in 1987, unable to deal with his addictions.

Lord Bristol, nicknamed Cuddles at his school, always claimed his unhappiness was the result of a loveless upbringing, an unhappiness that led him into a worsening drug habit after his 18th birthday when he inherited £1m. He is thought to have blown £30m during his addiction and was jailed twice for drug offences.

He didn't even own the house; Ickworth was taken over by the National Trust in 1956 in lieu of unpaid death duties. Under the National Trust deal, the family had residency of the East Wing in perpetuity, but Lord Bristol threw even that away when he was evicted the year before his death for threatening visitors to the part of the house that was open to the public.

When the National Trust put the East Wing out to tender, 154 companies expressed an interest in securing the 99-year lease. The Luxury Family Hotel group won and has spent more than two years and £4m restoring it.

"The Marquess had neglected the place somewhat," said Peter Lord, Ickworth Hotel's general manager. "It was run down and in the cellars it was damp and wet, and grass was growing through the cracks. Some of the old staff said they had never been in the basement – it was completely disused. Now we have turned it into bright, cheerful rooms where children can play.

"Towards the end of the marquess's life, the place must have seen some dark days."

With rooms, which have spectacular views of the 1,800-acre estate, starting at £150 a night for doubles and £350 for interconnecting rooms, the hotel has positioned itself at the top end of the market. Its 24 rooms are decorated in contemporary and traditional styles, and guests can even stay in the marquess's bedroom.

Dinner guests could choose from a £43-a-head menu that included poached andignac foie gras, sweet-and-sour cherries and banyuls jus for starters, with pan-seared red mullet, jus tapenade and risotto of langoustine as a main course.

Among the first guests were Fiona and Paul Lancer, who arrived with their children, James, 20 months, and Jade, eight weeks old. Mr Lancer, from Shenley, Hertfordshire, said: "It's sad to think of the marquess's unhappy here, but it does add to a sense of history. When you see children running round and having a good time in the nursery, it makes you feel as if the place has come alive."