It’s been a busy six months for The Berkeley as a crack team of designers led by Robert Angell and London-based architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners worked on three major projects within the hotel – the first, an expanded entrance, and two extensions.
The new entrance, especially, has been long overdue – the former low-key approach is now considerably enhanced by impressive volumes and proportions.
The architects have unapologetically described their design as a first in hotel architecture. Specifically, Ivan Harbour, a partner at Rogers Stirk Harbour, says his firm was careful to avoid ‘the lightweight, ‘high tech’ add-on entrance canopy cliché that has pervaded our cities since Llloyd’s of London. At The Berkeley, we conceived the entrance as a complete new building – a contemporary lean-to.’
The reference to a lean-to is a sly understatement, for the new entrance is a dramatic statement piece, particularly in the evening when the whole structure practically flares in the dark.
A glass canopy is stretched out over 16 nine-metre-long carbon fibre beams that provide a pleasing geometrical pattern that provides structural strength without sacrificing the sense of feathery lightness. The entire structure rests on an austere forest of timber masts and stainless steel columns driven into the stone base. Flanking each end is a full-length glass pavilion, both forming the new extensions to The Berkeley’s beloved The Blue Bar and the newly christened Collins Room (formerly the Caramel Room).
Honeycomb details on the canopy glass and pavilions create a subtle effect of dappled light on the new lobby by Robert Angell who has installed veneered eucalyptus wood panels, marble floors, alabaster wall lights and nickel inlay details.
The project, as ambitious as it is, is only the first salvo in The Berkeley’s tip-to-toe spruce up. Up next is a series of new suites by designed by John Heah and Helen Green Studio, alongside new outdoor terraces by Rogers Stirk Harbour
The former low-key approach is now considerably enhanced by impressive volumes and proportions
ADDRESS
Wilton Place
-
Modern masters: the ultimate guide to Jean-Michel BasquiatNew York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat centred the Black subject in political, electric works which resist easy definition
-
The Citroën Ami Dark Side is a special edition electric city car with a true Halloween vibeTrick or treat? The Dark Side edition of the tiny Citroën Ami is a gothic delight for micro-minded commuters
-
The Architecture Edit: Wallpaper’s houses of the monthFrom Malibu beach pads to cosy cabins blanketed in snow, Wallpaper* has featured some incredible homes this month. We profile our favourites below
-
New London restaurant Lagana drizzles Shoreditch with extra olive oilPachamama Group’s latest spot turns the namesake Greek bread into a philosophy, pairing childlike creativity with generous, unfussy cooking
-
Tobi Masa lands at The Chancery RosewoodChef Masa Takayama’s debut London restaurant transforms modernist geometry into a space of ritual calm and culinary purity
-
London’s smash burger obsession goes haute with Supernova MayfairNew York designer Sarita Posada taps into 1970s nostalgia and cinematic restraint for the group’s third outpost in the British capital
-
Peek inside Uchronia’s celadon green suite at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde ParkThe Paris-based studio teamed up with Pantone to transform a suite at the storied hotel into an aquatic dreamscape. Here’s how to check in
-
The Chancery Rosewood: A new chapter for London’s modernist iconAfter years behind closed doors, London’s most anticipated hotel opening finally arrives, proving that some things are worth waiting for
-
The Hart Marylebone marks the next chapter in London’s design-led pubsThe trio behind The Pelican and The Hero turn to Marylebone, fusing Victoriana, intimacy and culinary honesty in their most ambitious project yet
-
This 100-year-old private members’ club in London feels young at heartThe Sloane Club unveils a stylish new rebrand and redesign courtesy of Russell Sage Studio
-
The ancient and the erotic inspire Sessions Art Club’s Frieze London 2025 pop-up‘I think food should hum beneath the skin, like a good painting,’ founder Jonny Gent tells Wallpaper* on the opening of his temporary restaurant-cum-art-installation
