Whitbread wins appeal for Marylebone Hub by Premier Inn hotel

Whitbread has won its appeal to build a 294-bedroom Hub by Premier Inn hotel on Old Marylebone Road in London.

The hospitality group will now forge ahead with plans to redevelop the former office building at 191 Old Marylebone Road into a new 13-storey hotel.

The planning application to redevelop the site was submitted to Westminster City Council in May 2017 and refused in October 2018 due to the location of the hotel’s servicing bay.

Whitbread argued that the servicing bay should be located on Harcourt Street, a street adjacent to 191 Old Marylebone Road, rather than on Old Marylebone Road, as was preferred by Westminster City Council. In his judgement the planning inspector stated that using Harcourt Street to service the hotel would not result in harm to traffic or pedestrians nor result in the loss of a street tree as had been claimed by the Council.

Derek Griffin, head of acquisitions for Whitbread in Central London, said: “With planning permission now granted we will move quickly to redevelop the site and start to deliver a package of local benefits to the area including 60 new jobs on opening.”

Launched in 2015, Hub by Premier Inn hotels offer compact bedrooms – approximately half the size of a standard Premier Inn room – with contemporary design, a focus on technology and a ‘lounge’ style food and beverage offering. Whitbread operates eight Premier Inn hotels in London with new openings scheduled at West Brompton and Soho in the first half of 2020, as well as three further sites in Edinburgh.