Jestico + Whiles create hotel scheme for developers McAleer & Rushe
London's Leicester Square is set to gain a new hotel after Northern Irish developers McAleer & Rushe Limited have lodged a planning application with Westminster City Council for a new 200,000ft2, 230-bedroom hotel-led mixed-use building on the site of the Swiss Centre.
McAleer & Rushe are major developers in Ireland and are now undertaking numerous projects in the UK. They have developed many hotels, own several and are now focussing on the successful development of large mixed use inner city projects.
As well as the 100,000ft2 four-star hotel, the proposed building accommodates two storeys of retail facing onto Leicester Square, Swiss Court and Wardour Street, a restaurant with its entrance on Lisle Street, ten penthouse apartments with unique views across London, and three below ground levels accommodating a casino and restaurants.
The site is currently occupied by the 16 storey Swiss Centre, a tired and now largely redundant 1960s podium and tower building typical of its time, which will be demolished. The new building has been designed by London-based Jestico + Whiles.
According to Jestico + Whiles, the building's exterior will comprise a "a fine, frosted, translucent veil etched with abstract patterns hanging over a stony, honed, monolithic inner shell."
Inside, there will be a double height bar and a 'soaring' triple height reception and lobby bar, accessed via a grand staircase, on the second floor. Another double height space on level five will offer views across the tree tops of Leicester Square.
The bedrooms are in a superficially familiar configuration, around a double loaded corridor. However, the deep plan is exploited by sliding blocks of rooms in or out to form the generous, lofty public spaces described above. This allows a glimpse of natural daylight at the end of corridors.
www.mcaleer-rushe.co.uk
www.jesticowhiles.co.uk
