Buckingham Palace Road scheme to transform 1993 building with Victorian-style facade
EPR Architects has submitted plans to partially demolish and refurbish the former Belgravia police station in central London as a 252-bed luxury hotel.
The scheme at 202-206 Buckingham Palace road is set to be the third location in the capital for expanding hotelier The Other House, which opened its first hotel in South Kensington last year and is set to open a second in Covent Garden, designed by Falconer Chester Hall, in 2024.
Belgravia Police Station, which backs onto Ebury Square Gardens, was closed by Sadiq Khan in 2022 as part of a reorganisation of the Metropolitan Police and acquired by The Other Group later that year.
The redevelopment will see the majority of the 1993 building’s structural frame and basement retained, with parts of the lower and upper levels and cores demolished.
The brick and cladding facade will also be removed and replaced with a more traditional white-coloured brick design which EPR said will improve the building’s relationship with Belgravia and Victoria’s streetscape of Georgian and Victorian townhouses.
“Whilst the structure itself is robust and sound, the dated façade does not align with the architectural character of the local Belgravia area,” the practice said in planning documents.
“As a purpose-built police station it requires significant transformation to align with the character of the surrounding area and cater to the needs of a modern and commercially viable development.”
The existing building’s height will be increased from the current five storeys to nine, with upper levels featuring high-end rooms with terrace spaces, other guest bedrooms on floors one to eight, a reception, restaurant and lounge area on the ground floor and a gym and spa in the basement.
The project team includes project manager and cost consultant Gardiner & Theobald, structural and civil engineer Heyne Tillett Steel, planning consultant DP9, building control Bureau Veritas, landscape architect Andy Sturgeon and MEP engineer Introba.
EPR’s plans for a £300m, five-storey basement extension of the Ritz in Mayfair, including a two-storey spa, were given the green light in 2021, although the following year its proposals for a 70-room hotel in the district were refused at appeal. The Ritz scheme, known as Project Picnic, is being built under a CM deal by Sir Robert McAlpine with others working on the job including cost consultant T&T Alinea.
Other central London hotel schemes currently in the works include Reardon Smith’s plans for a roof extension of the Dorchester Hotel in Mayfair, which Westminster council approved unanimously last month.
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