Luxury hotel to open in Knightsbridge with direct link to Harrods

A £300m luxury hotel with direct access to Harrods via a secret tunnel is to open in London’s Knighstbridge.

Development of the 120-bedroom property on the site of the Pavilion Road NCP car park within the Hans Town Conservation Area has been given the go-ahead by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s planning committee.

Owner of the freehold site is global real estate company City Developments Limited (CDL), through its wholly owned subsidiary Beaumont Properties. CDL is the operator of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, with 145 properties worldwide including the Millennium hotel on Sloane Street directly opposite the site.

Designed by Tim Hamilton of UK-based Hamilton Architects, the hotel will feature eight floors above ground and three basement floor, with a bar on the top floor, a spa and retail space. The property is being described as a “six-star hotel”, although no such rating officially exists.

A disused underground pedestrian and goods tunnel linking the development with Harrods will reopen on completion of the hotel.

Kwek Leng Beng, executive chairman of CDL, said: “This site offers CDL one of the best opportunities to develop an outstanding hotel in one of the prime locations in central London.

“We are tremendously excited by this and the value it will bring to our London portfolio and our valued clients.”

A decision is yet to be taken on a luxury brand under which the hotel will operate. David Ashcroft, chief executive of Dartmouth Capital Advisors which is advising CDL on the hotel's development, told The Caterer: "The location of the hotel will make it a very attractive proposition to world's best brands."He added that reports that the hotel will become the first Harrods branded hotel were "premature".