Originally, Norfolk Square was a reservoir. Then All Saints was built and an imposing enclosure of terraced Victorian townhouses followed. In the 1960s, All Saints was replaced by a modernist block of sheltered housing but anyway, by then the neighbourhood was becoming populated by uninspiring low-star hotels.
Though moderately priced itself, The Pilgrm aims to reverse that progression. The quirkily-named hotel by myhotel collaborators, Jason Catifeoglou and Andreas and Steph Thrasyvoulou, takes over the four townhouses previously occupied by the Norfolk Hotel, which they have completely refurbished in collaboration with Sheffield-based design house 93ft.
Promising to be different, check-in is effected online and remaining arrival procedures take place in the ground-floor café. In the crisp, Spartan-chic rooms, period features have been given loving prominence and essential 21st-century luxuries injected, while downstairs, in-house eatery, Lounge, brings the best of Borough Market to Paddington. As progress goes, The Pilgrm will be worth watching.
