One Aldwych – A Magnificent Combination of Old and New Design
One Aldwych is a hotel in London. It lies in the Aldwych in Covent Garden in the City of Westminster.
The hotel is located in an Edwardian style building constructed in 1907 by the same architect who designed the Ritz.
For many years the building was used for The Morning Post newspaper office purposes. In 1998 the hotel was restored by Jestico Whiles Associates who purposefully retained its Edwardian style and also included Louis XVI ornaments to furnish it, including a 400 piece art collection. The exterior is also made from Norwegian Granite.
The founder of One Aldwych, Campbell Gray, has professed that the hotel is intended to be a classic hotel, not a boutique hotel geared towards ‘young, trendy people’, like some of the hotels near Queens Gardens.
Among the pieces of art in the ‘Art at One’
collection are the British sculptures that can be found on display in the Lobby
Bar and Lounge. These sculptures are the colourful Beano Dog by Justine Smith;
Head of Dionysus by Emily Young, who The Telegraph called Britain’s greatest
living female stone sculptor; Boatmen with Oars by Andre Wallace. The contemporary
‘Art at One’ collection fills the hotel and its 105 rooms and 12 suites.
There is a new guests-only ‘Lounge at One’,
opened in 2014, that features 80 Rizzoli art and design books selected by the
British designer Paul Smith.
The art is continued outside as well as
inside. One Aldwych is a founding donor of the impressive Garden Bridge that
will soon be underway.
This project is due to open in 2018 and
will be a bridge that doubles as a garden. The bridge will span the Thames
connecting Temple, near One Aldwych, with South Bank. The project was conceived
by Joanna Lumley and designed by Thomas Hetherwick. The Garden Bridge will be a
peaceful space filled with trees and flowery plants.
The bridge is futuristic and gothic in
style and has been described as a floating forest with a touch of fairy-tale.
The Garden Bridge project is budgeted at £175 million. The bridge will provide
a unique green space in London, easily accessed via the Tube at Lancaster Gate
Station from the Park Grand London
Paddington hotel.
One Aldwych contains one restaurant,
Indigo, and the Lobby Bar. The Lobby Bar is located in the gran high-ceilinged
lobby which was once the reception area to the former newspaper building. The
grand lobby has been described as ‘dramatic and aircraft-hanger-capacious with
enormous polished oak arched windows.
Another spectacular feature of One Aldwych
is the discreet and tranquil setting of The Health Club. The 59ft swimming pool
has a number of unique features - a chlorine-free mineral based cleaning
system; soft mood lighting around the pool and a screen showing a film of
colourful sea creatures. It is easy to
get transported across the continents while enjoying a leisurely swim.
There are also steam and sauna rooms and a
comfortable relaxation space with newspapers, magazines and fresh fruit.
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