The owners of a cocktail bar best known for its discreet location and discerning door policy are to open a new hotel concept in Capital & Counties’ estate in Covent Garden, WC2.
The Experimental Worldwide Group, the owners of the Experimental Cocktail Club in London’s Chinatown, are to establish a 20,000 sq ft, 18-bedroom boutique hotel and members’ club at 14-15 Henrietta Street.
Plans will be submitted to Westminster city council within the next few weeks. The hotel has a proposed opening date of spring 2016.
The property has most recently been used as an events space, and was once home to George Orwell’s publisher.
CapCo acquired the property in 2006 as part of its £421m purchase of the Covent Garden Market Limited Partnership from Scottish Widows Investment Partnership and Henderson Global Investors.
Experimental Worldwide, controlled by Romée de Goriainoff, Pierre-Charles Cros, Olivier Bon and Xavier Padovani, rose to notoriety with the 2010 launch of its speakeasy-style upstairs bar on Gerrard Street, accessed via an anonymous door next to a Chinese restaurant on the Shaftesbury Estate.
The group launched the Grand Pigalle hotel in Paris this year, and has establishments in Paris, New York and Ibiza.
Most recently it widened its London offer with the launch of the Joyeux Bordel bar on Curtain Road in Shoreditch.
Covent Garden is one of CapCo’s two primary estates, along with Earl’s Court.
In 2014 the value of the Covent Garden estate rose by 25% to £1.6bn on the back of leasing and acquisition activity.
The area has been a target for new hotel concepts including Premier Inn, which opened its first “hub” branded hotel there in November.
