45 Park Lane scraps plans for Colony Room pop-up ahead of new restaurant launch

London’s 45 Park Lane hotel has scrapped plans to open a pop-up based on Soho’s Colony Room club but is understood be launching a new restaurant next year.

The Times reported on Monday that the hotel was to temporarily recreate the famous drinking club, which launched in 1948 with Francis Bacon as a founding member.

The Soho site closed in 2008 and the hotel pop-up was to include artworks by its former patrons, including Damien Hirst.

But The Caterer understands that the proposed Tales of the Colony Room was still in the process of being approved and will no longer go ahead. This is in part due to 45 Park Lane seeing increased demand as a meeting and events venue while its sister hotel, the Dorchester in Mayfair, undergoes a significant renovation.

45 Park Lane is also set for a change in management team with Lee Kelly, former manager of London’s Berkeley hotel, set to join as general manager from 1 August. He will replace John Scanlon, who has taken up a role in California after seven years at the London hotel.

A new restaurant will launch at 45 Park Lane in 2023, though no further details have been announced.

This will be a separate venture that will not replace Wolfgang Puck’s famed steak restaurant Cut at 45 Park Lane, which has been open since 2011. Elliot Grover, formerly of Duck & Waffle and Hix Soho, was appointed executive chef at the hotel in April.