Whitbread, the major UK hotel business and owner of the Premier Inn budget brand, has gained consent to develop a hotel at 5 Strand in central London.
The 693-bedroom hotel, which will be one of London’s largest budget hotels when it opens, will be operated under the Hub by Premier Inn brand on a site off Trafalgar Square, metres from Nelson’s Column.
Whitbread bought the development site freehold as part of its strategy to expand its presence in London. It bought the site from Clivedale Properties and ABIL Group for £125 million in 2022 and reported an all-in price of £200 million to include the land, construction and other related costs of the development.
The vendors had bought the site and its then existing 72,359-square-foot offices in 2018 for £92.5 million.
The investment underlines a commitment to the Hub by Premier Inn brand, which has been designed to bring Premier Inn hotels into the centre of London and other major UK cities.
Hub by Premier Inn hotels focus on what Whitbread terms "compact hotel bedrooms" that are approximately half the size of a standard Premier Inn room. They also focus on technology and a 'lounge'-style food and beverage offering.
The consented 172,000-square-foot (16,000-square-metre) hotel at 5 Strand will be thirteen storeys high with the ground floor fronting onto the Strand and Northumberland Street to the east of the site.
Mark Anderson, managing director for property and international for Whitbread, said in a statement: “Hub by Premier Inn was launched a decade ago in St. Martin’s Lane, a few hundred metres from 5 Strand. The brand has blossomed into a network of 18 popular hub hotels in Central London and Edinburgh and has become a proven model for bringing our affordable bedrooms into the most central, vibrant, and connected locations for our guests.
“5 Strand is an excellent example of how we think the hub by Premier Inn brand can evolve in Central London. It also shows how we can use Whitbread’s strong balance sheet to acquire the best positioned, most accessible, and high-demand locations in the capital to grow our brands. With planning permission now secured we will move quickly to begin construction of the new hotel and deliver a true flagship location for our guests.”
Whitbread has been investing heavily in London. It has more than 100 locations within the M25 with a further 12 locations in its secured development pipeline in the capital. It is also seeking new sites in 40 locations in inner and outer London for its Premier Inn and Hub by Premier Inn brands.
In line with Whitbread’s commitment to managing its direct emissions to zero by 2040 (scopes 1 and 2) the Hub by Premier Inn at 5 Strand will be powered solely by electricity generated by renewable sources.