Bermondsey Square Hotel - London

Bermondsey is not the first place you would think of creating a new hotel, but the district is gradually undergoing the sort of gentrification previously seen in other rundown areas of London. Galleries and gastropubs are increasingly interspersed with the kebab shops and council flats that have characterised the area.New apartment blocks are much in evidence. And now, there is Bermondsey Square – a £60m mixed-use development on a regenerated site at the end of Bermondsey Street. Designed by architects Munkenbeck + Marshall, to an Arup masterplan, for developers Igloo Regeneration, the project comprises a central pedestrianised square surrounded by buildings on the perimeter.

The conventional elements of a mixed-use development – hotel, retail units, restaurants and apartments – sit alongside components no doubt intended to give the whole scheme a ‘cool’, ‘urban’ edge. There’s an arthouse cinema, a recording studio, and a bike shed designed by architect Sarah Wrigglesworth. Despite these modern interventions, the historic feel of the area has also been retained. Customers can still buy jellied eels from Manzes, the capital’s oldest surviving pie and mash shop. The famous Bermondsey Antiques Market takes over the square every Friday (indeed the development was partly funded Southwark Council to provide a new home for the market). Some of the square’s original Victorian townhouses have been left in tact where more land-hungry developers would have erected glass and steel blocks.
Indeed Munkenbeck + Marshall’s buildings are warmer  in feel than most of the modern apartment blocks along Bermondsey Street. Horizontal strips of red laurel timber cladding soften the harsher materials, and give an initial indication of the eco-credentials which Igloo Regeneration take so seriously. 

Igloo have enlisted Bespoke Hotels as the hotel operators, one of the first tenants to occupy the development alongside Sainsburys and the Del’Aziz Mediterranean deli. Formed by hoteliers Robin Sheppard (former GM of Bath Spa) and Haydn Fentum (former owner of the Lygon Arms, Bilsley Manor and Combe Grove Manor), Bespoke Hotels mainly runs properties on management contracts for private owners. Bermondsey Square is the first newbuild hotel it has developed.
As General Manager Will Oakley explains, despite the significant amount of regeneration in the area – and new developments such as More London bringing a Hilton to this part of London – there is no boutique hotel offering nearby. “We felt there was an opportunity for a different offer – something which reflected the local area, with a Sixties feel, a sense of humour, and an arty feel.”

With the building plans largely in place, designer David Gabriel was approached to pitch against three other design practices for the interiors of the hotel. Rather than turning up with a Powerpoint presentation or a glossy brochure, Gabriel says he took a felt pen to the existing plans to produce a floor-by-floor set of sketches outlining his vision for the project. 

He managed to shoehorn nine additional rooms within the existing shell, and proposed an exhibition kitchen, deli and bar / restaurant directly linked to reception on the ground floor, with a members bar above. Sheppard liked the plans, not to mention Gabriel’s previous work on projects such as Roast restaurant at Borough Market, and he got the job.

There is a ‘contemporary retro’ flavour to his scheme, with strong Sixties elements punctuating the space. Bubble chairs hang from the ceiling in reception. Walls throughout are adorned with Steve Nyman photographs of girls in Mondrian-patterned dresses on the streets of Bermondsey. The four suites at the top are named after girls in Sixties songs: Lilly, Jude, Ruby, and Lucy. Sleeper stayed in Lucy – a light, spacious room combining crystal-studded leather headboards and sheer curtains with an outdoor hot tub on the adjoining roof terrace. Each of the suites follows a similar layout, the main difference being the colour scheme: one black, one red, one pink and another all-white. 

Rooms on the other floors follow a footprint sketched out by Gabriel in that original pitch meeting. Lozenge shaped wetroom pods open up to a study zone with a full sized desk, and separate make up area, then onto sleep / relaxation zones. Forty of the rooms feature an innovative dual-use headboard – effectively an angled desk that is backed up to the bed’s headboard. This means that the bed with a leather-upholstered headboard can be positioned towards the windows while the reverse of the headboard becomes an upholstered desk panel concealing a generous work surface, task lighting and an office-style chair.

All rooms have a Mac-based Apple TV system, similar to that first trialled by City Inn hotels, and iPod docking stations.
A key consideration for the design was Igloo’s insistence that the hotel be as sustainable as possible.

Consultants RYB Konsult designed an M&E system to fit into the shell and core structural frame inherited from the original developers.  Hot water is generated from roof top thermal stores which in turn are fed from the low temperature hot water mains linked into the base development.  Large Hansgröhe drench showers are fitted into the prefabricated bathroom pods with a specially designed flush floor gulley removing the water into the adjacent vertical stacks.

David Gabriel has specified recycled Decoran glass tops for the night table, and natural materials such as silk, hide, wool and limestone elsewhere. Bamboo flooring was used instead of timber for the ground floor, and bedroom study areas. The project team – which also included project managers Keytask, and fit out contractors EE Smith – examined the green credentials of suppliers, such as furniture manufacturer ODonnell, who provided the walnut and oak casegoods throughout the hotel.

This sustainable ethos carries through to the food sourcing in Alfies – the 90 seat restaurant which occupies the ground floor. Conceived, according to Will Oakley, as a “high-end greasy spoon” local ingredients are sourced mainly from nearby Borough Market to create modern British dishes under the guidance of executive chef Mark Taylor.

BERMONDSEY SQUARE HOTEL
Bermondsey Square, Tower Bridge Road, London, SE1 3UN, UK
Tel: +44 (0)870 111 2525
www.bespokehotels.com/bermondsey

Rooms   79 guestrooms
Dining    Alfies Kitchen
Drinking    B2 Private Members Bar
Leisure    3 treatment rooms
Facilities    3 meeting rooms