Household works on Shoreditch House hotel

The branding and interiors group presented a speculative creative pitch to Shoreditch House owner Soho House Group in January, off the back of an existing relationship between Household insights director Michelle Du-Prat and Soho House Group founder Nick Jones. Soho House Group appointed the consultancy a month later to design the hotel.

Shoreditch Rooms will be located on the site of derelict Victorian pub The Swan Tavern, which has lain empty since the 1980s.

Archer Architects is retaining the pub’s facade, behind which it is inserting a new building. Household is about to start planning prototype rooms, which creative director Keith Fowler describes as ‘compact’.

‘We are using a design language and materials that reference the pub and communicate faded glamour.

We are thinking about the original building and employing old-fashioned manufacturing processes,’ says Fowler.

Household is creating bespoke beds and side tables for each room, and sourcing furniture ‘in the rich, bold colours of Victorian pubs,’ says Fowler.

The walls will primarily be white. ‘We don’t want to end up with something that feels modern and plastic. It must have as much character and art as possible,’ says Fowler.

Household is commissioning local artists to create artworks for the hotel. One local illustrator is designing a swan motif to be etched into the hotel’s ground-floor windows.

Spa and beauty brand Cowshed, which is also partowned by Soho House Group, will run a concession and a delicatessen and café on the ground floor.

The hotel will share Shoreditch House’s foyer, which Household is also redesigning. Shoreditch House Rooms and Cowshed Spa and Deli will open in December to members and non-members.

The hotel is likely to compete for customers with Terence Conran’s new hotel, which is due to open in the autumn (designweek.co.uk, 12 May 2008) and is based just metres away on Redchurch Street, E2.

SOHO HOUSE GROUP LAUNCH PROGRAMME

• Dean Street Town House & Dining Room, late 2009, with 41 bedrooms, designed by Susie Atkinson. The restaurant is being designed by Martin Brudnizki
• Soho House Berlin, early 2010, designer undecided
• Soho Beach House Miami, mid-2010, designer undecided
• Soho House West Hollywood, 2010, designer undecided
• Soho House Chicago, 2010, designer undecided