To my delight this historic hotel was bought by a Client in the then Shire Inns and I found myself part of the team that transformed the hotel, adding air conditioning, additional bedrooms and upgrading all the interiors. A reception lounge was created out of an area previously a storeroom, a wine tasting area added to the famous cellars, and the hotels historic ambience was restored, its physical history respected. Shire Inns brought back the legendary Terry Holmes as manager and the hotel moved back upmarket to its place as one of London’s legendary great hotels.

Shire Inns became Shire Hotels, Terry retired to be replaced by his deputy, Stuart Procter, and the hotel has entered a new era with the acquisition of the neighbouring office block. The conversion of this has added 26 suites to the previously existing 79 rooms and suites. The brief for designer Jane Goff and her team at Goff Associates was a difficult one, as the modern office block had to be given the same feel as the existing hotel. The Stafford is one of those hotels that has evolved over ages, with rooms being added as the space became available around Blue Ball Yard – the Guvnor’s Suite, the Carriage House and now the newly christened Mews. The slightly eccentric layout gives the hotel part of its country house charm (it was named by the London ‘Evening Standard’ newspaper in 1999 as ‘London’s Best Country House Hotel’).

Making the new rooms carry the same charm as the rooms in the original 17th century building,with its 350 year old working wine cellars with underground corridors to St James’s Palace(and contributing to the hotel reputation as a place used for illicit liaisons by royalty) was a difficult challenge well met by the practice. The Mews addition houses 26 suites plus a Penthouse Suite with rooftop views across this prestigious area of London. Marrying these into the ambience of the existing hotel was an exacting and difficult task. After over ten years working on the buildings designer Jane Goff was well able to call on her experience to carry out this careful piece of design, as the images on page two show.