Trocadero hotel to finally open as first Zedwell

Criterion Hospitality’s Trocadero hotel in London’s Piccadilly is finally set to open, under the new Zedwell brand.

Following a drawn out planning process plagued by delays (the hotel was originally due to open ahead of the 2012 London Olympics), the 750-bedroom hotel is now expected to open in early 2020.

The Zedwell brand is being marketed as having a single aim: “to create the perfect environment for the perfect night’s sleep”, involving soundproofed doors, noise-reducing walls and ceilings, natural oak beds, cosy furnishings and “calm-inducing colours”. The name suggests to ‘zzz’ and therefore sleep well.

The property will also have a rooftop bar able to accommodate 1,000 guests and various retail, food and beverage outlets, as well as being directly accessible underground from Piccadilly Circus tube station.

In 2020, Criterion hopes to open three more hotels under the Zedwell brand in Edgware Road (120 rooms), Great Russell Street (220 rooms) and Greenwich (122 rooms).

Plans were drawn up to create a 476-room and then a 495-room hotel on the Trocadero site, which were given the go-ahead in 2008 and 2010 respectively. The scheme for the Grade II-listed building was then increased to a 583-bedroom, Tokyo-style “pod” hotel, which was given the green light in 2012. The hotel will only take up part of the building; the Trocadero name will remain.

The hotel was originally slated to be one of two Criterion hotels operated by Accor, with the Trocadero site set to open as the Ibis Styles Piccadilly Circus. Accor is no longer involved in the project and the hotel will be operated by Criterion Hospitality.

The group’s Victory House hotel opened in 2017 as the MGallery by Sofitel Leicester Square, but has dropped the branding in recent months and is now simply known as Victory House hotel.

The Trocadero was originally built as an entertainment venue in the 17th century. In the late 1990s, it was home to the first 3D IMAX cinema in the UK, as well as an arcade game centre called Segaworld, which became Funland in 1999. Funland closed in 2005, when Criterion bought the building.

Criterion Capital is a real estate management company and the largest landowner between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. Its portfolio includes the Assembly Hotel London, Victory House hotel on Leicester Square and Hotel Indigo – 1 Leicester Square.