| This new-build hotel is now just over two years old. Built adjacent to one of London’s busiest transport interchanges, it is in an excellent location for both the business and leisure traveller. Within walking distance of Buck House, next door to Victoria station, and an easy amble from Tate Britain, the hotel sits virtually on top of one of the busiest rail, tube and bus stations in London. Straight down the road outside across the river are two British institutions, the MI6 (not-so-secret intelligence services) headquarters and the Oval cricket ground, either side of one of Londons largest gay pubs - perhaps a haunt of Philby, Burgess and Maclean? |
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| Setting back the main bulk of the building, the frontage echoes the fenestration of the Georgian terrace opposite |
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:: Panoramic Views
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Architecturally the building fits into an area of chaotic architectural styles. Near neighbours include Georgian terraces, Victorian shops,lacklustre infill buildings from the immediate post war era, theatres and ultra modern office blocks of glass and steel. The building successfully lives with these contradictions, with fenestration echoing the Georgian harmonies across one street, whilst the black glass bulk of the main block steps towards the contemporary building next door. This was obviously a difficult site, oddly and irrationally shaped and it has posed problems for the interior designer as well as the architect. Although the latter has handled the exterior well, he has, (as architects are prone to do), left the interior designers with the structural columns that pierce the internal spaces.
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Sometimes graphics is there even if only just - but rollover them to see them vanish.Door graphic is good, but hidden in a tunnel off the street.
In the bathrooms visual interest is generated by glass washband basins and clever lighting, whilst the apartments go upmarket by using stone instead of ceramics for the wall and floor finishes
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The building goes down as well as up, and the conference and meeting room facilities as well as the delightful and efficient small gym make use of the underground levels alongside the hotels own secure car park – a rare asset in London. Placing the conferencing underground gives a level of sound proofing from the traffic noise which inevitably fills the area 24 hours a day. Planning of the bedroom and the specification of the double glazing doesn’t manage to provide the same tranquillity in the bedrooms, where a country boy might struggle to get good nights sleep with the harmonies of city life droning a steady beat in the background 24/7.
Neither does the design maximise sound proofing. Windows, whilst double glazed, lack an effective soundproof gap. Any Londoner will tell you a 100mm gap between glazing panels is recommended for soundproofing – standard units are not effective in this situation – but then the architect was from out of town. In the business rooms the bedroom end has been positioned adjacent to the windows, when using this for the business desk and working area might have made the sleeping area quieter than it is when placed next to the window.
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