Studio Moren Secures Planning for Office-to-Hotel Conversion in London’s “Destination City” Initiative

Posted in Future, News on 17 June, 2024

Studio Moren are excited to have achieved detailed planning consent for one of the first Office to Hotel conversions in the City of London’s new “Destination City” initiative to enliven the city with a mix of uses.

The previous banking hall and office at 5-10 Great Tower Street has been vacant for some years and is located on the primary ceremonial route to The Tower of London while also fronting the listed St Dunstan Churchyard to the rear.

The proposed new “lifestyle” hotel comprises 237 keys in a sustainable conversion of the existing building with a redesigned top and base.

At street level the façade has been opened up to activate the “ceremonial” frontage to a publicly accessible restaurant, bar and co-working space, the latter benefitting from a view of the historic St Dunstans’ churchyard, a hidden gem in the City. The previously “impenetrable” banking façade is transformed to one that invites visitors to engage with the hotel facilities and thereby enhancing and enlivening Great Tower Street.

The rooftop of the building is remodelled with an additional two stories in a contemporary addition designed to reflect the mansard form of neighbouring development while providing hotel rooms with spectacular city views.

Internal features include the repurposing of basement bullion vaults to leisure & gym facilities.

Aside from the sustainability initiative to fully re-use the existing structure & façade, improvements include new high-performance windows matching the “crittall” originals and entirely new energy efficient services.

The proposed hotel fully matches the City of London “Destination City” initiative to retain but repurpose redundant and outmoded office space, while both enhancing the facilities & services for workers and visitors and extending traditional trading towards a 24-hour, 7 day week.

Anupriya Rajpal, Development Director at Dominus said: “Securing a planning approval from the City of London is a major moment in terms of progressing plans for Great Tower Street and construction completion in 2025. Dominus operates three hotels in central London and this project will be of a similarly high standard. Having identified the opportunity to repurpose and retrofit this building, the Dominus team are working hard to give this largely vacant building a new lease of life. Our collaboration with The City of London Planning team to bring these proposals forward will create a new attraction within the city, boosting activity in the immediate surroundings.

Our focus on the ESG credentials of our developments means we will create a high-quality place to stay within the city that is also sustainable. Former office buildings that are now redundant have huge potential for new uses, especially in prime locations. This strategy that we have refined over the past few years also works well with The City’s developing leisure infrastructure.”

About Studio Moren
Studio Moren is an award-winning practice of 70 architecture and interior design specialists, working right across the hospitality spectrum. Over the past 32 years in business, we have established a world-renowned reputation as leaders in hospitality design, based on our ability to deliver intelligent, creative and bespoke solutions which meld both developer and operator requirements. With a design-led ethos of ‘creating places people want to stay’, we have taken our hospitality experience into other sectors including resorts, serviced apartments, build-to-rent, co-living and co-working. We are passionate, commercially astute and committed to producing beautiful buildings and interiors that respond to location and context.

www.studiomoren.co.uk