Blending the old with the new, this hotel renovation project gave a historic building a new lease of life. From every inch and every corner of the development guests at this high-end luxury hotel can delight in the design detail brought to life by Galliard Construction.

Property: Great Scotland Yard Hotel

Location: Westminster London

Type of Property: Grade II listed Edwardian Building

Ironmongery Schedule: 750 doors plus accessories

Transforming this iconic building into a luxury lifestyle hotel was an architectural hardware masterpiece. The external façade has been sensitively retained and restored, whilst internally the basement has been excavated introducing 2 new levels as well as a 2-storey roof extension.

From the get-go, the wheels were put in motion to compile a comprehensive set of ironmongery schedules to over 750 doors. In keeping with the designers’ aspirations for the building, the brief also included design and manufacture of a range of unique architectural hardware items from ornate handles, accessories for wardrobes, vanity units and more.

The challenge for the developers was to take this former Scotland Yard Police HQ and Ministry of Defence building from being a functional building to a luxurious experience. So how can the skills of an architectural hardware specialist help? As well as the aesthetic upgrade, developing hardware solutions that help to increase the ease of movement in the hotel space was crucial to the success of the renovation of this hotel.

Door Furniture – helps to ease the flow of staff throughout the building and influence the overall functionally of the space. It’s a piece of furniture that interacts on a daily basis with guests and staff alike so why not make it a feature as well as a function. In this project, the interior designers achieved just that and with skilled ironmongery added drama to spaces throughout the building with door furniture that included decorative elements that complimented the overall design concept.

Hardware Accessories – with rooms going for £10k per night, quality needs to exude from all elements of the project. Every detail down to handles for doors, wardrobes and vanity units have to be taken into consideration. For guests the experience is seamless.

Signage – improving the flow of the building whilst at the same time harking back to its heritage with cheeky yet subtle hardware. These items were uniquely specified and manufactured by John Planck Ltd, with a strong focus on durability and design.

The building is adorned with numerous decorative joinery pieces such as bar rails, corner, and t-brackets, themed ‘Elephant’ hooks for under-counters, drop handles and finial hinges to display cases, window shutters and cabinetry in the various bar and restaurant areas, and several other knurled, leather, reeded, glass and antique brass cupboard knobs and accessories.

Stand out features of the ironmongery design include:

• a hexagonal-shaped lever handle to the ground floor public areas
• a colonial-style lever to the bedroom areas.
• decorative ‘Elephant Head’ design pull handles
• bespoke shaped lever handle backplates to compliment detailing on door paneling
• bespoke-centered lock cases to suit
• differing sized concealed hinges to suit the door construction and weights
• ‘power transfer’ hinges for access control solenoid locks within the doors
• bespoke ‘bent’ key shape hooks to ensuite doors
• sliding and swinging door automation
• covered euro escutcheons to riser door cylinder locks
• automatic acoustic drop-down seals to bedroom entrances
• skirting and corridor wall corner guards
• electronic RFID locker locks to the gymnasium area
• bar foot rail and brackets
• elephant shaped hooks
• monogram ‘glass’ doorknobs with Great Scotland Yard logo
• sliding pocket door gear, including to suit single panel over 3m wide and 2.5m tall

Crucially delivering meaningful interaction for users of a building that was originally constructed for commercial use takes a lot of planning. In a hotel environment, designers need to get the mood just right and this is reliant on a number of factors. A well-developed plan that engages specialist craftsmanship like architectural ironmongery early is a valuable part of the hotel renovation process.