HOW A BRAND NEW PENINSULA RESIDENCES WILL CHANGE THE GAME IN LONDON
The Peninsula is the world’s oldest luxury hotel company, founded by The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels in 1866. Testament to their attention to detail and pursuit of perfection, they have opened just 10 hotels worldwide in those 155 years.
So when The Peninsula London hotel and residences open later this year – only the group’s second ever branded residence project, after Shanghai, and one of just two new hotels that are opening, along with Istanbul - it will be with a huge weight of expectation. This, after all, is a project that has been decades in the making.
“I have worked for Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels for 20 years and I’ve spent most of that time looking for a project in London,” comments Clement Kwok, the company’s CEO. “None had the stature until this one came along,” he adds of the scheme’s landmark location at 1 Grosvenor Place, overlooking the historic, Grade I listed Wellington Arch between Hyde Park and Green Park. “If you are high enough up, you can look into the gardens at Buckingham Palace,” Kwok adds.
The Peninsula Residences London - a new ultra prime residential address for Belgravia on Hyde Park Corner
“If you are high enough up, you can look into the gardens at Buckingham Palace.”
With a long reputation of ultra-luxury and timeless hospitality to uphold, “if it wasn’t the very best location, it wasn’t viable. When you only have 10 hotels, it has to be perfect,” comments Simon Fernandes, The Peninsula Residences London's head of sales. It had to be new-build, too, to create the size and calibre of hotel they needed.
Building from scratch also allows the brand to bring their uncompromising eye for detail to the project. Despite being a prestigious hotel group of a modest size, they have their own research and development facility - a huge warehouse near Hong Kong where, on entering, you are transported into the entrance of a luxury hotel and sample rooms.
The Peninsula Residences London - The Bathroom Suite
The group’s top talent, including Kwok, spend occasional nights there, testing everything from the way the water flows from the soap dishes to where the air con blows into the room.
“Off-the-shelf products don’t give us the quality we want,” says Kwok, whose team adhere to 28 volumes of design standards. “It’s not just front-of-house stuff. We have more back-up power supply than any other hotel, and more guest elevators. It’s all part of the bone structure of the hotel and it all results in a more special experience.”
To an ultra-high net worth buyer in central London, there is a wide choice now when it comes to luxury branded residences, including new schemes in Mayfair’s Grosvenor Square, Raffles at The OWO in Whitehall, and the Dorchester Collection at The Mayfair Park Residences in Park Lane. Despite this growing number, each scheme and brand is driven by a distinctly individual approach to luxury lifestyle. At The Peninsula Residences London, Kwok explains how “we are not here by having a lot of hotels, but by having a different philosophy to our branded residences.” The scheme’s 26 apartments, designed by American architect Peter Marino, occupy around 40% of the 700 sq ft building; even the smallest measures a generous 1,700 sq ft.
This unique approach, Kwok explains, lies in the company being the owner, developer and operator of the hotel and residences, rather than sub-contracting the running of the hotel and residences to a separate entity. “We are involved long-term. You truly need to have control,” he says. “It’s not so much about design, or where to hang the art – though they all play a part. The important thing is that the whole philosophy filters through every single aspect.”
The difference in philosophy, Kwok explains, lies in the company being the owner, developer and operator of the hotel and residences.
With The Peninsula London as hands-on operator, it brings buyers the reassurance that, as Fernandes puts it, “you can walk downstairs and know that every member of staff is a Peninsula employee”. They may also be happy to know that The Peninsula London will offer afternoon tea in its “destination” lobby to match the venerated tradition in the near century-old Hong Kong hotel. And, Kwok promises, the hotel will serve the highest quality and most authentic Chinese food outside China.
While we’re talking facilities, the car ramp is also worth a mention. “We designed this instead of a lift, and it costs more ultimately. But it has been meticulously engineered to ensure the low-profile supercars that residents and their guests will inevitably drive can go up and down without issues,” says Fernandes. He also points out the spa roof, with its huge, metal-framed white canvas lit by an installation behind. “It was hugely expensive, but it’s about creating the wow factor in every detail.”
Many of the buyers so far are London-based – undoubtedly a feature of having launched during lockdown, during which international travel has been severely hampered. But as is typical of London’s super-prime market, they represent a wide range of nationalities. Most have residences in the capital already, “but this is an upgrade. They’re after the service piece. They can call the director of services just before they get in their private jet to say ‘I’m landing at 2am, can you make sure my apartment is ready’,” says Fernandes.
The Peninsula Residences London - Residents' Lobby
These are people, he adds, who would typically travel with a large entourage of staff. But that’s not necessary at The Peninsula Residences London, given the hundreds of hotel staff at their disposal. “They can just come with their PA and nanny. Rather than spending £3m-£5m on a staff apartment, which is common in this type of development, private household staff can be accommodated in the hotel when they visit,” Fernandes comments.
Discretion is also essential for these buyers. Every sale is bound by a non-disclosure agreement, and the prices of the residences are being kept “under the radar”, says Fernandes. “People don’t want others knowing how much they spend.” It’s a small world at this level, however, and buyers are inevitably intrigued about who they’ll be living next to. Word of mouth counts for much too, with buyers committing to a purchase because a friend has bought in the same development.
These residences, costing tens of millions of pounds, are unlikely to be buyers’ primary homes. But when they are there, for a couple of weeks or maybe months at a time, they will feel at home, says Kwok – not just because they will be known, and greeted by name, by staff on their arrival, but because of the privileged location of the development, at the gateway to Belgravia, with access to Belgrave Square garden, “a gem, with a tennis court in the middle”.
This “charming neighbourhood feel” is something that branded residences increasingly seek to emulate, and a rarity in central London, Kwok feels. Owners at The Peninsula Residences London can afford the very best that money can buy. And that is what The Peninsula, with its century-and-a-half of history, commits to deliver. But, as ever, sometimes it is something simpler and less tangible that can set the new class of branded residences apart from the rest. “Being an international luxury brand is good,” says Kwok, “but it’s feeling part of the local community that counts.”
The Peninsula London on Hyde Park Corner