Knightsbridge: Incredible refurbishment for luxury but ugly five-star Sheraton Park Tower hotel near Hyde Park

The hotel chain has asked Kensington and Chelsea Council to approve its plans for the second time in five years because it wants to add an extra two storeys to the existing permission which only allows them to build four storeys on top of the building.

The proposal will see an underground public car park ripped out to make way for a large podium that will surround the site and act as an entrance to the hotel with a plush first-floor terrace with canopy. Sheraton also plans to remove a casino on the premises to free up more than 1000sqm of space for retailers and a restaurant.

The number of hotel rooms will also be reduced from 271 to 240 in a bid to ‘modernise’ the 1970s tower. This includes increasing the provision of accessible hotel rooms from three to 12, a planning application before Kensington and Chelsea Council shows.

Sheraton said the refurb, which is set to cost over £100m, also includes building eight new three to four-bedroom apartments overlooking Hyde Park. These will be located above the hotel and form part of the ‘distinctly different’ six storeys the company is looking to add onto the tower.

The hotel currently comprises 16 floors with its body measuring 40 metres tall. If the application is approved, the height of the tower will increase by 15 metres. A separate entrance for residents is being proposed along Seville Street.

The hotel chain is offering Kensington and Chelsea Council £16.5m in financial contributions to offset the lack of affordable housing. It said the circular shape of the building makes it difficult to build social housing ‘to a conventional rectangular floor plan’ and that building smaller residential units would result in them having little to no access to windows.

The council said the offer was ‘reasonable in this circumstance’ despite its own assessors calling on Sheraton to pay £38.5m. Sheraton will also provide £5.8m towards the borough’s Community Infrastructure Levy. The council said: “The proposed design to the ground and first floor podium is welcomed in providing a unified appearance to the street scene, which adds to the legibility that is currently lacking in the existing situation.

“The redeveloped and additional storeys would pick up on the architectural language of the existing building but would be distinctly different in their approach to the building, allowing them to sit in harmony with the existing building while being architecturally distinct.”

The proposal appears to be popular with locals with a number writing in to support the application. They said it would enhance the area and improve the existing ‘ugly’ building base while ‘strengthening’ shops in the area. A smaller number of objectors said the additional storeys would result in the tower ‘dwarfing’ surrounding buildings and becoming ‘visually overpowering’.

Kensington and Chelsea Council said the development would make a positive contribution to the area. It said: “Taking into account the benefits of the development proposals, as a whole, alongside statutory duties, national policies and guidance, the proposed development would be acceptable and make a notable contribution to the delivery of homes in the borough. The adverse impacts of the scheme would not significantly and demonstrably outweigh the clear benefits and the scheme is recommended for approval, subject to conditions and a legal agreement.”

In 2020, Sheraton was granted permission to increase the height of the building by four storeys, which included redeveloping the 16th and 17th floors and to create a new setback on the 18th floor.

This would have added an additional 5m to the height of the building. Kensington and Chelsea Council will review the application during a planning meeting on Thursday, April 3.