Squire & Partners-designed plans for a 200-room hotel on the site of a 1980s office block a stone’s throw from Trafalgar Square are set to get the go-ahead from Westminster council.

The practice’s proposals were drawn up for developers Clivedale and ABIL, which acquired 5 Strand from US investment-management firm BlackRock last year. BlackRock had secured consent for an Adjaye Associates-designed office-led redevelopment of the site in December 2017.

With a gross internal area of 14,500sq m, over 12 floors and three basement levels, the Squires scheme delivers broadly the same floorspace as the Adjaye proposals, however that scheme included 26 flats on its upper floors and a ground-floor retail colonnade in addition to its office space. (See gallery at the bottom of this story.)

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