RUBY LUCY HOTEL DEVELOPMENT

WATERLOO, LONDON

Total site footprint: 10,750 sqft

Existing building GIA: 22,875 sqft

Consented GIA: 57,027 sqft

Hotel rooms: 128 keys

Lower Marsh Parade is a historic street set behind Waterloo Station that is built up of a collection of unique terraces that has been developed in a piecemeal fashion over its duration resulting in an eclectic mix of architectural styles dating back from the Victorian period. The plot widths typically differ from one to the next, with each building built to a varying height of circa four storeys. On occasion there are larger developments that are split across three or four plots.

Our client approached us with a site of 10 plots, two of which contained a Boots store on an existing lease at ground floor level. The client was unsure how to proceed with developing the site whilst the Boots store was still in operation. Typically a single use development split across 10 plots would not have been acceptable, however we developed a strategy for C1 Hotel Use to be introduced to the site whereby the architectural language retained the piecemeal-like nature of the street scene, allowing the site to be split into many building parts yet still retain the single use. In turn Boots could remain in place during the build, following which it would be relocated into the new building to allow the Boots site to subsequently be developed and incorporated into the hotel.

In line with this strategy, the scheme was approved at planning, securing the client a single use 75 room hotel development of circa 32,700 sqft GIA, a total uplift in area of 17,500 sqft from existing. Following construction and occupation of the hotel, permission was granted for the development of the Boots site, the design for which was sufficiently different to the main hotel that its amalgamation into the hotel was justified. This extension secured the client an additional 53 rooms and 22,100 sqft of GIA.