The Guardsman, Buckingham Gate
Redesigning discrete luxury
The Guardsman is a luxury boutique hotel topped with six exclusive apartments in the centre of Westminster. Shiva Hotels appointed us to redesigned a previously consented scheme. We were tasked with both maximising the efficiency of the layout and also better reflecting the aspirations of the client and the quality of the surrounding area.
The 53-room hotel is close to some of London’s most famous landmarks, including The Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. The top three floors are home to apartments. Designed as the perfect London pied-a-terre, they comprise a selection of one, two and three bedrooms, along with living spaces, dining areas and fitted kitchens and outdoor terraces.
We redesigned the exterior using a subtle decorative screen and hand-made grey bricks to more closely match the hotel’s historic surroundings. Creating both privacy for the hotel lobby, as well as discretely marking the entrance of the building, the bespoke bronze anodised decorative metal grille uses randomly patterned bars to create a rhythm adding vibrancy to the main street frontage. The hotel’s dining room, bar and lounge is visible at ground-floor level adding further interest to the street scene.
As with many central London developments, the tightness of the site was a challenge. Using our extensive hospitality experience we were able to reconfigure the design to be as efficient as possible, placing apartments at the upper levels to capitalise on daylight and views. Spaces for dining, plus the workings of the hotel, were moved to within the ground and lower ground floors.
The Guardsman is a purpose-built boutique hotel and residential experience with the atmosphere of a quintessentially British private members’ club. We redesigned external elements to reflect that feeling, working closely with the interior design and consultant teams to ensure quality of design, inside and out.
This was a challenging site, with a limited floor plate and complex relationships with neighbouring buildings. Working in close co-ordination with the interior design and consultant teams, we were able to use our experience to develop an efficient layout and a high-quality design response to the hotel’s context, whilst meeting the client’s key requirements.
- Client
- Shiva Hotels
- Location
- London, United Kingdom
- Status
- Completed 2020
- Uses
- Hotel
- Size
- 53 keys
- Photos
- SCOPIC productions