The owner of luxury hotel Claridge’s is planning a major underground revamp to add five new basements, a swimming pool, restaurants and bars.
The Maybourne Group has lodged plans with Westminster City Council to provide 190,000 sq ft of extra space for spa treatments, a gym and back-of-house facilities in the Art Deco wing.
The proposal also includes an height extension to provide 40 new suites and bedrooms.
The hotel was granted permission for a double-height basement to move some of its plant facilities from the top of the hotel in 2007, where it is planning a two-storey extension.
The Maybourne Group said: “To maintain the hotel’s high profile … Claridge’s needs to focus on its immediate requirements and look ahead to the next 50 years.”
It criticised the hotel’s previous owner, Blackstone, saying that while the hotel was well maintained and refurbished in key function rooms and bedrooms, the back-of-house areas were “poor, and at best just held together to function”.
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