London’s Kensington High Street is set to welcome a new five-star boutique hotel, following the granting of planning permission to extend an existing building close to the Design Museum.

Hospitality firm JMK Group has leased 229 Kensington High Street, which currently houses the 36-room Seraphine Kensington Olympia, as well as a ground floor coffee shop.

Architecture and design firm Studio Moren (formerly Dexter Moren Associates) will oversee the refurbishment and expansion of the property, with a rooftop extension adding a further 30 rooms, and the ground floor being used as a café, delicatessen and hotel lobby.

It is not clear if the hotel – which is located on the corner of Kensington High Street and Abindgon Road, around five minutes’ walk from High Street Kensington Underground station – will retain its existing name.

Work will start in the first quarter of 2023, and is scheduled to be completed within 15 months.

JMK Group has a portfolio of seven hotels across the UK and Ireland, including the recently opened Hampton by Hilton Dublin City Centre, and forthcoming Moxy and Residence Inn properties in Cork.

Mark Wood, partner at Studio Moren, is quoted by boutiquehotelnews.com as stating:

“This was a complicated and exciting project, in a conservation area, next to a listed building and in a prominent corner position.

“Successive alterations over time had significantly altered the character of the existing building; our design approach for this scheme therefore seeks to not only significantly improve the quality and layout of the interior but also to improve the building’s character by returning it, where possible, to its original appearance and to further enhance its appearance with modest, sensitive, contemporary new build extensions.”

For our recent round-up of new and forthcoming hotels in the UK capital, see:

New and upcoming London hotels (2022)

jmk-group.co.uk