RETROFIT | NOMAD HOTEL Turning a Grade II-listed Victorian police station and magistrates court into a luxury London hotel required innovative services design, as Andy Pearson explains FRESH START G iacomo Casanova, Oscar Wilde and the Kray twins are among the many famous names to have appeared at Londons Bow Street Magistrates Court. There has been a court in Bow Street since 1740, and it was here that the first British police force, the Bow Street Runners, was founded in 1749. The current court building dates from 1879, and the adjoining police station, built in a similar Greco-Roman style, was completed at about the same time. The police station shut up shop in 1992; the magistrates court heard its final case in July 2006. After passing through the hands of various developers, the two buildings were sold to the UK arm of Qatari investment firm BTC in 2016. It set about turning the Grade II-listed Victorian police station and magistrates court into a luxury, 91-room hotel for the New York-based NoMad chain. It was a very challenging and complex project incorporating the level of services required for such a luxury hotel, given the nature of the existing heritage building, and required innovative thinking and collaborative working to ensure successful delivery, recalls Andrew Peggram, project partner and head of hotels at Hoare Lea. Hoare Lea collaborated with development manager Sydell Group (NoMad brand owners), New York-based interior designer Roman and Williams, and EPR Architects on the transformation of the 19th-century buildings. Sydell Groups aspirations were for a sixstorey building with an extensive food and beverage offering, comprising atrium restaurant, ballroom, nightclub, private dining rooms and several bars, in addition to 91 luxury guest rooms. In a nod to the buildings historic origins, the new scheme also includes the Bow Street Police Museum, housed in part of the former police station, and a wing of cells in their original condition that the public can visit. NoMad was declared Hotel of the Year at the Ahead Europe 2021 awards The retained structures form two sides of the square-shaped building. A retained faade forms its rear, behind which and close to it is an existing residential block. With considerable constraints posed by the existing space, the site, and its neighbouring buildings, we had to find ways to maximise the number of guest rooms and the capacity of the food and beverage offering, says Peggram. At the centre of the site is a large, glazed courtyard that is key to the scheme being able to accommodate many of the hotel functions critical to its success. Beneath the courtyard and the new-build guest-rooms infill extension is a newly created, three-level basement, the upper level of which houses the gym, giant atrium restaurant, One of the 91 luxury guest rooms in the NoMad Hotel, which opened in May 2021 30 January 2022 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE Jan 22 pp30-33 NoMad Hotel.indd 30 23/12/2021 13:52