John Betjeman would be delighted to see the effort made to restore and display the fine Victorian architecture and decoration of Sir George Gilbert Scott's building (he was the architect - no trace of an interior designer). One bedroom has the reproduced original wallpaper and reproduction furniture to show the glories of Victoria's day. Throughout though the stunning detailing is already attracting hordes of tourists - so much so the hotel will sell trips around the building, roll up, roll up, kerching!

Some of the bedrooms are housed in a modern extension, which at the insistence of English Heritage was constructed in a matching style. The brash brightness of its new brick and stonework perhaps shows why it was preferred to leave the green stains from overflowing blocked rainwater spouts discolouring the front of the building rather than allow it to be taken back to its original condition (of course, the new brick will quickly weather down to match the old). What is less understandable is why the new bedrooms have small bathrooms with the shower over the bath, at odds for example with the efforts made by Starwood when renovating the Sheraton in Edinburgh.

The second of the two groups of rooms are in the original building referred to as 'the Chambers' after the name given to the offices in the 1970's. These have classical modern marble bathrooms. This hotel did not have ensuite bathrooms, a reason for its closure in 1935 (interestingly the year the railway hotel, now the Queens in Leeds opened as the first hotel in the UK built with en-suites to all bedrooms).

Designed by designers GA International the bedrooms in the Chambers have had to be all different, and individually designed. The demands of the preservation of the old structure and decorative elements necessitated subtle and occasionally striking differences between rooms.

I visited the hotel pre-opening when it was full of contractors and subcontractors focussed and engaged in the normal controlled chaos that characterises the completion of any hotel project.

None of the rooms I saw were really completed to the Renaissance standards, but the photos I have selected are, I hope, representative of the of the quality of this, another wonderful addition to the London hotel scene




© Words & Images Patrick Goff

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