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 


    


shows on a block overlooking Leicester Square – were asked to ‘audition’ for their roles on a special casting day. The hotel has ‘WOW’ and ‘WOW Extreme suites’ or rooms


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branded as ‘wonderful’, ‘spectacular’ or ‘marvellous’. Laundry is called ‘Style and wash’, while the tasks of an ‘Insider’ include getting the hottest tickets in town for the guests. All in all, this is a hotel with a difference, with an M&Ms shop-cum-visitor experience on its ground floor and ‘branded apartments’ in its upper reaches. No such casting day was required for the scheme’s architect,


Jestico + Whiles, but the end result is also different from the usual, rather run-of-the-mill new-build hotel fodder elsewhere. The practice was recommended for the job by an architectural advisor to its design and build contractors, McAleer & Rushe, a privately owned firm from Northern Ireland, which was itself keen to make a splash with their first scheme in London. And a splash it has made. But to get there has been a relatively long haul. First, Jestico +


Jestico + Whiles’ W Hotel London © James Newton


Whiles had to work within the strict requirements of Westminster City Council, which wanted to preserve much of the character of the conservation area in which the scheme stood. Thus the architects had to work hard to create a building that got on well with its surrounding context: the formality of Haymarket, the messy hubbub of Chinatown, and the flashy ‘theatre’ of Leicester Square. “It was just impossible,” says partner John Whiles, remembering the struggle to create a scheme that was all things to all men. Happily, though, he had a sudden flash


hey do things a little differently at the W Hotel in London. For starters, prospective staff for this swanky establish- ment – a highly glazed structure animated by light


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