Kensington Forum London Hotel & Apartments, Queensgate Investments Property, Rockwell News

Kensington Forum, Cromwell Road

Hotel, serviced apartments on Cromwell Road Kensington design by SimpsonHaugh and Partners

21 June 2019

Kensington Forum Redevelopment on Cromwell Road

Design: SimpsonHaugh and Partners

Location: Cromwell Road, Kensington, West London, England, UK

Queensgate Investments and Rockwell secure green light for Kensington Forum

London: 21st June 2019 – Queensgate Investments and Rockwell have today got the green light for their proposed redevelopment of the Kensington Forum. Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, resolved to grant planning permission for the landmark new hotel, serviced apartment and conference scheme on Cromwell Road, to create a truly remarkable, world-class visitor destination.

image courtesy of developer

Designed by leading architects SimpsonHaugh, the proposals will replace the existing 906 room hotel, recognised as a local eyesore, with an exceptionally high-quality development providing outstanding facilities including restaurants, bars, health spa and conference facilities, vital to supporting London’s continued role as a world city and major global destination for business events.

Kensington Forum will also deliver substantial public benefits for both the local and wider community. It will create more than 800 employment opportunities and support these with £1.4 million of training initiatives. It will also accommodate 62 genuinely affordable Social Rented homes, worth £90 million (the first private development in London to deliver a 100% genuinely affordable homes); both meeting a clear and pressing need in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Alongside the hotel will be a new, publicly accessible and sensitively designed 2,700sqm garden square which will be the only publicly accessible green space within 1km of the site. A further £2.8 million will be put towards public realm improvements to the area around Gloucester Road station.

Jason Kow, Chief Executive of Queensgate Investments, who own the Kensington Forum commented: “Queensgate Investments is proud that the Mayor has resolved to grant this unique opportunity to create one of London’s largest hotel and service apartment schemes, whilst also delivering for the needs of the local community and Londoners alike.”

Donal Mulryan, Founder of Rockwell, added: “We are delighted that the Mayor of London has resolved to approve this landmark development, which we’ve designed to last at least 150 years and that will continue to deliver for the local community. Kensington Forum is an ambitious scheme of exceptional quality which sets a new benchmark for global visitor accommodation.

In doing so it delivers an overwhelming amount of genuinely affordable homes, meaningful employment opportunities, green space and public realm. I’m proud of the significant and positive contribution this will make to London’s continued success and am confident that this will stand as further testament to Rockwell’s passion, commitment and exacting standards.”

image courtesy of developer

Kensington Forum Redevelopment

About Queensgate Investments LLP
Queensgate Investments LLP (“Queensgate”) advises and manages around GBP 3B worth of assets through the suite of Queensgate Investments Funds. Queensgate is a partnership between the Kow Family, Alvarium Investments (formerly known as LJ Partnership), Peterson Group and Dilmun. The company differentiates itself by its flexible, nimble and non-institutional approach to producing superior risk adjusted returns.

• Queensgate recently acquired Grange St Paul’s, Grange Tower Bridge, Grange City, and Grange Holborn for circa GBP 1B from the Matharu Brothers

• Queensgate owns Generator, the largest lifestyle hostel company globally with 15 mainly freehold sites, circa 9,000 beds across key cities including London, Paris, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Miami, Dublin, Hamburg, Barcelona, Berlin, Stockholm, Madrid, Venice, Rome and Washington DC

• Queensgate owns the 906 room Kensington Forum Hotel, the third largest hotel in London

About Rockwell
Rockwell is an agile, versatile and connected property developer with a proven track record of delivering quality development projects across the UK. Founded in 2015 by Donal Mulryan, this fast-moving and adaptable development business has already made a significant market impact, as evidenced by Rockwell’s high-profile investment partnerships, enabling the company to react quickly to new development opportunities.

The company’s expertise spans four major pillars: land acquisitions, planning, development management and construction. Rockwell is actively seeking large development sites in Greater London, prioritising those with untapped potential to transform entire neighbourhoods through innovative urban design and delivery.

About SimpsonHaugh
SimpsonHaugh’s passion for responsible, uplifting and beautiful design has informed their approach since 1987, when Rachel Haugh and Ian Simpson were united by a shared belief that innovative architectural thought has the power to shape and transform our cities.

SimpsonHaugh’s talented team of architects, designers, visualisers, model makers and support team all reinforce these guiding principles across a ranging portfolio of work, applying a creative and bespoke approach to every opportunity. Collaborating with aspirational clients, communities and design teams, they harness their passion, knowledge and expertise to evolve powerful and pragmatic solutions.

Recent notable London projects include: One Blackfriars, Battersea Power Station Phase 1: Circus West Village, Dollar Bay, and Queens Park Place. Currently on site is Westfield M7, HMRC’s new office in Stratford; Holbrook House, student accommodation in West Acton; and West India Dock Road, a new mixed use scheme adjacent to Westferry DLR station, which is also Rockwell development.

Kensington Forum Redevelopment images / information received 210619

SimpsonHaugh Architects

Location: Cromwell Road, Kensington, London, UK