HOTEL REVIEW
ABOVE: The lobby features an eclectic library and cosy, intimate seating areas. Patterned rugs are by Spanish manufacturer Alarwool. The ‘Box’ sofa is by Istanbul-based Autoban. Other pieces are a mixture of one-off vintage pieces and reproductions
ahead of the 2012 Olympics. Located at 20 Chesham Place, Belgraves is nestled amongst the embassy buildings and expensive boutiques of Belgravia. The German diplomatic mission is just across the square. Couture designers such as Anja Hindmarch, Christian Loubutin and Herve Leger have stores nearby. Nonetheless it is a relatively quiet location for an operator more used to the hustle and bustle of downtown Manhattan. Jason Pomeranc, co-owner of Thompson
Hotels, characterises the hotel’s feel as “a little New York attitude coupled with traditional British hospitality... Belgraves is a truly creative collaboration which will have a huge impact on Londoners and international travellers alike,” he says. Participants in this collaboration have included interior design practice Tara Bernerd & Partners, EPR Architects, and chef Mark Hix, whose Hix Belgravia was revealed as the hotel restaurant just before opening. The New York attitude is evident from
the attire of the doormen, clad in sharply tailored jeans and plaid shirts rather than top hat and tails. The hefty entrance door – a 3m high piece of timber and bronze protruding through the frameless glass frontage – gives a clear sense of arrival and distracts attention from the Seventies vernacular of the façade, which planners insisted be retained. The New York loft feel continues inside, where sandblasted brick walls, contemporary artworks and vintage mid-century furnishings combine with a colour scheme of warm greys and aubergine accents. The building inherited by the project team
was not ideal. Low ceilings, crumbling walls, a leaking roof and dilapidated windows all had to be addressed. “The primary challenge was the development of the two main frontages along Chesham Place and Pont Street,” explain EPR Architects. “Our proposal was to remove the existing two- and three-storey brown glass extension and replace it with a clear double height frameless glass façade providing light and transparency as an
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essential element of the design. The detailing of the glass frontage was critical to the success of the interiors and the styling of the hotel as a whole. The structural glazing needed to be domestic in scale without creating a ‘goldfish bowl shop front’ or becoming too commercial. A combination of stainless steel columns, glass fins and point fixings were used.” Inside, Tara Bernerd & Partners and EPR Architects, working with contractor Overbury, project managers Jones Lang LaSalle and lighting consultants Isometrix, have created what is to all intents and purposes a new hotel within the existing structure. “Working with the forward-thinking and design-savvy Thompson Hotels, has magnified the appeal of the project and allowed us all as a team to create a very seductive hotel,” says Tara Bernerd, describing the project as “a rich, eclectic and tactile design that combines traditional elegance with a modern architectural language. It’s not trying to be overly grand or overly luxury, it’s got cocoons of space.”
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