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Ten new hotels coming to London

27 Feb 2016 by BusinessTraveller
london skyline

Like many a host city, London saw a predictable surge in hotel development in the build up to its 2012 Olympic Games. Nearly four years on, there seems to be no sign of slowing down for the UK capital. Between now and the end of the decade, thousands of rooms will be added to the city’s inventory. Here are 10 new hotels coming to the capital.

From the same owner as the Courthouse Hotel at Carnaby Street comes the Old Street Courthouse Hotel in Shoreditch. Renovating the former magistrates court and adding a new wing, the hotel will have 128 rooms, a bar that incorporates some of the former jail cells, conference facilities, and an underground swimming pool. A website is not live yet, but opening is only a few months away – we expect it to be May.

 

Dutch group citizenM will add the first of three new London hotels it is working on this year: citizenM Tower of London. Built on top of the exit hall of Tower Hill tube station, the flagship hotel will be its largest with 370 modular rooms, constructed offsite and craned into place. The top two floors will have a SocietyM business club.

citizenM Tower of London

Just across the small public park from citizenM, Four Seasons should open its – by then – second London hotel by December, now that it has announced it will drop its Canary Wharf property (see news January 14).

Four Seasons Hotel London at Ten Trinity Square will have just 100 rooms inside the restored, Grade II-listed former Port of London Authority building. At the heart of the hotel will be the Rotunda Lounge with restaurant, while there will also be an extensive spa, a private members’ club, and 41 serviced residences.

Four Seasons Mei-Ume-restaurant

Rosewood London and The Hoxton Holborn have changed the area now sometimes referred to as ‘midtown’ dramatically. This year, a third hotel, in between the two, will join the mix. L’Oscar Holborn is set within the Grade-II listed former Baptist Church headquarters and chapel, bringing 67 hotel rooms from prolific designer Jacques Garcia, as well as a restaurant, bar, spa, gym, and conference facilities.

2016 may also still see the arrival of Marriott’s Moxy in London – possibly even with two hotels. The first is in Stratford, next to the Westfield shopping centre and near the Olympic Park, while a second hotel is being developed at the Royal Docks near the ExCel exhibition centre.

Looking further into the future, Nobu Shoreditch is under construction just a few blocks away from the Old Street Courthouse Hotel. A 156-room, five-story hotel, it will have a triple-height restaurant and bar opening up to a small garden, with chef Nobu Matsuhisa responsible for all food and drink served in the hotel.

A short walk towards Shoreditch High Street is Michael Achenbaum’s The Curtain Hotel and Members Club. Also a new build, the hotel will have 120 rooms and suites, two restaurants, and a 1,600 square meter Moroccan-inspired rooftop with swimming pool, bar, and café. The Curtain spa will have a hammam and fitness centre. The members club will be integrated within the hotel but have separate facilities.

 

Speaking of members clubs, while it continues its international expansion, with cities like Amsterdam (see news February 20) and Barcelona in progress, Soho House is also adding another property in London. Set within the Grade-I listed former Midland Bank on Poultry, there will be around 200 rooms, a members club, multiple restaurants, a spa with indoor pool and gym, and an underground bar in the bank’s vault.

 

Heading west, Jean-Louis Costes is bringing the boudoir-chic of Hotel Costes Paris to Sloane Square. Taking over a former apartment building on Sloane Gardens, it will have just 40 rooms, as well as a destination restaurant and bar.

 

Nearby, Belmond (previously Orient-Express, see news February 2014) is busy with its $48 million renovation of The Cadogan, which will have been closed for two years this summer (see news July 2014). Room count is being reduced from 64 to 52, and a ground floor restaurant overlooking Cadogan Place Gardens will open up to Sloane Street.

 

This list of ten is not exhaustive by any means. Next year may see the completion of the Great Scotland Yard Hotel (once meant to be a Hudson hotel, now most likely managed by Steigenberger, see news July 2015).

Starwood Hotels and Resorts is working on its dual-branded Aloft and Element hotel at Tobacco Dock, while InterContinental Hotels Group is building a Hotel Indigo near the Barbican (see news March 2014).

Perhaps later this year or next we will also know more about what Armani Hotels has planned for the Admiralty Arch, what Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts will do with its property next to Liverpool Street station, or what The Standard London – opposite St. Pancras station – will be like.

Paul J DeVries

The Curtain Hotel
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