UK: Queensgate Investments is planning to demolish the 906-room Holiday Inn Kensington Forum and replace it with a major mixed use scheme.
The brutalist building on Cromwell Road was designed by Centre Point architect Richard Seifert and is London’s fifth biggest hotel.
Queensgate has submitted plans to demolish the building and replace it with a 749-key hotel, 340 serviced apartments, 46 residential units, restaurants and a conference centre.
The development will have two towers of 29 storeys and 22 storeys, as well as a lower-rise building, spread over a two-acre site near Gloucester Road Tube station. Planning documents submitted with the council show that 20 of the 46 apartments will be designated affordable and the developers will also restore the gardens in Ashburn Gardens Square that were largely lost when the original hotel was built.
Jonathan Manns, head of planning at Rockwell, the developer appointed to the scheme, said: “Designed by award-winning architects, this scheme will transform a functionally obsolete building and recognised local eyesore into a world-class hotel-led development. We’ve worked closely with the community to propose a new building which will significantly improve the appearance of the site and the amenities it provides. The proposal also introduces new market and affordable homes, stepping height away from nearby residential properties and reintroducing the historic garden square which is much desired by the local community.”
More than 200 objections have already been lodged with Kensington and Chelsea council from residents opposed to the project.</p
