Nestling between Waterloo Station and Tate Modern, in the heart of the London Borough of Southwark, this 274 key new build mid-market hotel has two separate blocks of accommodation connected via an elegant light weight glazed bridge link. The 9141 m2 new build development includes a ground floor restaurant, fronting onto an inviting public courtyard and pocket park.
The ground floor restaurant welcomes the local community and hotel guests alike and generates an active frontage along the pathway, with an al fresco dining area spilling informally from the interior into the courtyard. A public route between the blocks (the re-instatement of the lost Marlborough Street) leads through to a verdant pocket park and New Marlborough Yard, designed in the spirit of other ‘discoverable’ courtyard spaces such as Ham Yard, St Christopher’s Place and Shepherd Market.
The pocket park incorporates seating, sculpture and abundant planting to offer respite and a sense of place within the hubbub of city life. Diverse tree species will provide shade and create a calm oasis, as well as helping to improve local air quality. Native and ornamental plants foster biodiversity throughout the scheme and a mosaic of wildflower and sedum green roofs will provide a habitat for wildlife.
DMA’s design reinterprets local materials and characteristics into an under-stated, contemporary piece of quality architecture. Three colours, textures and tones of brickwork (glazed green, yellow London stock and pale white matt) reflect the local Victorian industrial vernacular and public houses and give a light, delicate façade, with a repetition of bay elements creating a structure and vertical rhythm. Perforated metal panels and detailing provide a subtle industrial reference.
The site lies between the intense activity of The Cut with its shops, restaurants, bars and cultural entertainment and the quiet residential area of Ufford Street. DMA’s design therefore took careful account of the context of the new hotel, bringing some of the Cut’s liveliness into the public realm to the north whilst grouping the quieter sleeping accommodation closest to the residential area.
