The Bar Journal

If we thoughts after the Olympics Game last year the hospitality business will stop to grow and bars, restaurant and Hotels start a slow decline, we were wrong, several major holding are investing in the UK capital and the year ahed looks really promising.

The first ever luxury Shangri-La Hotel in London will have the unique selling point of occupying the upper floors of one of the tallest buildings in Europe when it opens in 2013. Standing at 310 metres (1,016 feet) tall the new Shard tower, previously known as London Bridge Tower, will be 245 feet higher than One Canada Square in Canary Wharf – formerly London’s tallest tower. Taking up 18 floors of The Shard – from floor 34 to 52 – the Shangri-La will offer 195 rooms, 170 deluxe guestrooms, averaging more than 42 square meters each making them among the largest in London. Even if you’re not staying at the hotel you will be able to benefit from those far-reaching views – anyone can access the public viewing platforms on floors 68 to 72 which are expected to attract over half a million visitors a year.

The Old Fire Station, Marylebone was expected to open in 2013, the former fire station in Marylebone’s Chiltern Street is to be turned into a hotel by New York-based real-estate developer Andre Balazs. More used to seeing art exhibitions than fire fighting demonstrations in recent times, plans are afoot to turn the Grade II-listed Victorian building into a high-class 33 bedroom hotel. Westminster planners have given proposed plans for The Fire Station the green light. Balazs, who has already had success with designer hotels like The Mercer, Chateau Marmont, and The Standard Hollywood in the US, is remaining tight lipped about the details but we hear that the small site will only allow for 26 luxury suites and a restaurant, the sort of discrete hotel his A-list friends will feel at home in.

The Great Northern Hotel originally designed by Lewis Cubitt and opened on 17th May 1854, The Great Northern Hotel in King’s Cross, one of the first examples of the great railway hotels, is the oldest purpose built hotel in London – though little remains of the original building other than the facade. In 2013, the 19th century Grade II listed hotel reopens following a twelve-year closure which began in February 2001 to make way for the Channel Tunnel rail link and improvements to Kings Cross and St Pancras Station.

Willow Street Hotel | Nobu Hotel
The new hotel, at 10-50 Willow Street, east London, has been designed by Ron Arad Associates and, from the plans submitted to Hackney council, the design is quite simply stunning. The hotel will house 143 bedrooms and – given Nobu has made his name in creating the finest Japanese cuisine in the world – it’s no surprise to hear there’s a statement restaurant: a dramatic 5 metre high space in the basement. The five storey hotel includes its own garden, while rooms are clustered around a central bathroom screened off by a full-height curved unit. This will be the first UK building by Ron Arad, the designer responsible for the stunning design museum in Holon, Israel.

London Edition was the former Berners Hotel in Fitzrovia, closed since 2006, was bought by Marriott International in November 2010 and will become the London Edition when it opens in 2013. The historic grade ll listed Berners Street building has had a £33 million makeover to become a luxury lifestyle hotel under the Edition brand, created by Marriott in partnership with legendary American hotelier Ian Schrager. The building, which was originally built in 1835 as five separate houses, has had its facade restored to its former glory and the interior extensively refurbished to create a stylish 175-bedroom hotel. The Edition brand aims to be the ‘antithesis of a chain’, characterised by personalised and unique design spaces and modern service. And the London Edition is set to be the first of many new Editions with ten more hotels planned in cities worldwide including Miami and New York, Beijing, Bangkok and Abu Dhabi.

The new Art’otel London Hoxton – the first London venture from the group – on a prominent corner at the junction of Old Street, Rivington Street and Great Eastern Street. Despite objections to the project – from English Heritage who say the building is too tall for the area, and from locals who lament the loss of the Foundry, a bar and art centre with a Banksy mural in the basement – planning permission has been granted by Hackney Council, and backed by mayor Boris Johnson.

SALUTE!
GIUSEPPE GALLO