One Aldwych, the 105-bedroom luxury hotel on the edge of London's Covent Garden will close for two months next year to complete a major refurbishment.
The hotel will initially remain open when work starts on the multimillion-pound project in October, closing in mid-January. It is expected the hotel will reopen in March. All staff will be retained during the closure.
It will be the most significant refurbishment of the property since the hotel opened in 1998, headed by Gordon Campbell Gray who stepped down in 2010.
Designer Robert Angell, who has previously worked on the Connaught and Berkeley hotels in London and Lime Wood in Lyndhurst, Hampshire, will create the new look for the bedrooms, which will include four new suites, taking the total bedroom count down to 102. Meanwhile, Fabled Studio, which designed Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel London, will reimagine the public spaces including the entrance, reception, Lobby bar, Indigo restaurant and private event spaces.
Eneko Basque Kitchen & Bar, located in the basement of the hotel and which was opened in September 2016 by Michelin-starred Spanish chef Eneko Atxa, will remain unchanged.
Simon Hirst, the hotel's opening general manager for 10 years, returned to One Aldwych last year as managing director after four years at Raffles in Singapore to oversee the renovation.
He said: "When the hotel first opened its doors 20 years ago, its striking design and exemplary service levels set the standard for others to follow.
"It has stood the test of time beautifully but tastes and expectations have changed. Now is the right moment to update the hotel, to create superbly comfortable, modern sophisticated rooms and once again set the benchmark in hotel design."
Privately owned by the Kansagra family, One Aldwych is located within an iconic Edwardian building on the corner of the Strand. It was designed by Anglo-French architects Mewès and Davis for the Morning Post newspaper.
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