Crowne Plaza Kensington, positioned in the heart of London SW7 has announced a significant refurbishment project working with award-winning London-based architects and interior design practice Jestico + Whiles. The Crowne Plaza’s boutique London outpost will unveil a complete refurbishment of all accommodation on the 1st May 2015, offering its guests a chic new look and feel.
Kensington’s ultimate neighbourhood hotel housed behind a wonderfully imposing Victorian stucco façade offers an intimate oasis for its guests in a prime London location. The townhouse property has successfully established a home from home ethos, with exceptional and welcoming service, above and beyond the expected.
The hotel’s162 rooms, some of which are amongst the largest in London, include 20 split-level suites providing apartment style living with the luxuries of impeccable hotel service. Its facilities include a destination pan-Asian restaurant, Umami, cocktail bar and club Lounge plus exceptional meeting facilities featuring five high-tech rooms, giving the destination broad appeal. Unique to only a handful of London hotels, The Crowne Plaza is also home to a one-acre garden oasis overlooking the Victorian church of St Stephens.
With its ground floor lobby, bar and library areas refurbished in 2012 to offer a stylish townhouse meeting place for guests and local residents, 2015 will elevate the property’s accommodation to exceed expectations. With the appointment of Jestico + Whiles, its rooms and suites will offer a new design emulating a true London spirit.
In a contemporary twist with heritage London accents, the new look, executed in a clean and contemporary style, will lean heavily on London Regency and Georgian reference points. Incorporating geometric, period-style references throughout the rooms from furniture arrangements to floor patterns.
Significant upgrades to the hotel’s guest rooms will include brand new flooring, echoing references of the iconic black and white Victorian tiling of the borough and textured wall coverings. Brand new furniture, which is functional yet stylish, focuses on British craftsmanship from dense tweed ottomans and easy chairs to hand stitched leather dining chairs. New desks will feature glamorous pop-up vanity units and faux leather and fabric crafted headboards to flank the hotel’s signature Sleep Advantage beds.
The hotel’s 20 split-level suites will echo a similar design yet feature a dedicated lower ground living space complete with living and dining areas including sumptuous sofa beds, making these spaces perfect for families. Upper levels are accessed by fresh white painted wooden staircases to a haven of sumptuous design tailored for the ultimate sleep in the city.
All corridors will be re-styled with a nod to the property’s London townhouse heritage, featuring cool steely grey textured walls combining faux leather stitched panels, slick lighting design and graphic print carpets. Accents of ironmongery will dress guest bedroom doors and elevators also re-dressed to feature a combination of painted wood panels, silver mirrors and faux leather panel surrounds.
Edward Bracken, General Manager, Crowne Plaza Kensington, said: “Crowne Plaza Kensington is a testament to our commitment to create a home away from home in an area of our city that has a true neighbourhood feel at its heart. We aim to surprise our guests, offering above and beyond service and an amenity-rich hotel experience for visitors and residents alike. We are proud to offer a significant upgrade to our rooms and suites that now echo the essence of our DNA here at the hotel whilst retaining and adding a nod to the great heritage of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.”
James Dilley, Head of Hospitality and Interior Design at Jestico + Whiles, said: “Through our design work in the most fascinating locations across the world, we have developed a design ethos whereby context is always respected and reflected in our work. The generic and the universal is no longer satisfying.
“All our designs reference the location to establish true spirit of place. These references may be cultural, geographical or historical but are always subtle or oblique. In this case, the rich layers of history of Kensington, itself a unique ‘village’ in its own right within London, are used to create an understated, monochrome palette with punches of saturated colour overlayed with graphic references to architectural details of town houses, including the signature spear railings and the black and white diamond tiles of the porches”.
As part of the hotel’s next phase the property has recently completed a renovation of its meeting and events facilities. With a total area of 563 square metres, across five meeting rooms, function spaces offer flexible configurations and high tech facilities, supervised by a highly skilled events team. All spaces have been re-painted offering bright white space for guests and delegates, with the addition of magnetic, ‘write on’ movable walls, brand new concealed projector facilities, flat screen TVs staggered throughout the rooms and state of the art AV systems operated via an in-house iPad.
Ideally located within a few minute’s walk from Gloucester Road tube station, Crowne Plaza Kensington offers fast and efficient access to Heathrow, Central London and Earls Court and is within walking distance to some of London’s most coveted museums and shops including The Natural History Museum, V&A and Harrods.