City approves Orms and Richard Griffiths’ Custom House hotel conversion

City of London councillors have unanimously approved plans by Orms and Richard Griffiths Architects’ to transform the City of London’s grade I-listed Custom House into a hotel.

The scheme for developer Jastar Capital was approved at a meeting of the City’s planning committee this morning following a recommendation for approval from planning officers.

It marks a significant moment for the early 19th century building, which has stood vacant on its prime riverside site since HMRC moved out in 2021. A previous proposal to convert it into a hotel by Squire & Partners was thrown out at appeal in 2022 following an outcry by heritage campaigners.

The revised scheme by lead architect Orms and conservation architect Richard Griffiths will see the building converted into a 180-bed hotel, a scaled back version of the 200-room hotel planned by Squire & Partners for the site’s previous client Cannon Capital Developments and Global Grange Hotels.

The new scheme will also convert the building’s riverfront car park into a 2,400sq m public realm space which will be accessible to the public around the clock, 365 days a year, and with no private closures allowed.

City of London planning and transportation committee chairman Tom Sleigh said: “Custom House has stood on the Thames for centuries, but for too long, it has been closed to the public. These plans will not only give the building a new lease of life, but will open its doors, as well as the riverfront, to Londoners and visitors alike.

“Turning the car park into 12 tennis courts worth of riverside public space is the kind of change that makes the city feel alive. The project is a shining example of how the City can honour its history while creating new spaces that people can enjoy every day.”

> Also read: Orms and Richard Griffiths Architects replace Squire & Partners on Custom House hotel plans

Custom House is considered one of the City’s finest examples of neoclassical architecture, with its 500ft-long river frontage stretching along the historic Pool of London where a version of the structure has existed as a customs collection facility for more than six centuries.

The latest building, designed by David Laing and completed in 1817, had been the home of London’s customs and trade for over 200 years.

City planning officers were highly complimentary of Orms’ proposals for the “transformational” new public realm, which they said will be “one of the single greatest contributions of any application site, in both its quantity and quality, to the public realm of the City.”

Two new terraces will also be built on the central wing’s southern elevation containing an outdoor cafe and restaurant area, connected to the quayside by ramps and steps, while the interior of the building will contain new spa and health facilities.

Historic England, which described the site as “one of London’s greatest Georgian buildings”, said it welcomed the building’s reuse as a hotel with publicly accessible spaces and considered the proposals to be “sympathetic” to its historical significance.

The heritage advisor, which worked closely with the project team during pre-application talks, said it was “pleased to see that much of the advice that we provided during those discussions has been taken into account in this final submission”.

It conceded the scheme will still cause some harm to the site but that was considered to have a “fairly low” impact on the building’s significance and was outweighed by the “significant heritage benefits” of restoring and repurposing the building for future use.

Both Save Britain’s Heritage and the Georgian Group, which led opposition to Squire & Partners aborted scheme, have backed the new proposals.

The project team also includes Publica on cultural and landscape strategy, Elliott Wood as structural engineer and Caneparo Associates on transport.