Squire Heritage Consulting provided heritage and conservation advice for the refurbishment and remodelling of 2 Chesham Hotel, a Grade II listed former townhouse within the Belgravia Conservation Area.
Forming part of an early-to-mid nineteenth-century stucco terrace, the building derives significance from its prominent corner position, classical architectural composition and group value. Internally, important historic features survive, including the principal staircase and glazed dome, historic joinery and decorative details, together with evidence of the original hierarchy and proportions of the principal rooms.
Successive adaptations to hotel use had altered parts of the interior through later partitions, en-suite bathrooms, lowered ceilings and replacement finishes. The conservation challenge was therefore not simply to minimise further change, but to identify opportunities to recover aspects of the building's historic spatial character while retaining and repairing significant surviving fabric.
Our approach combined detailed building inspection with archival research and historic plan analysis. Plans dating from 1927 were compared with the existing building to distinguish primary walls and historic circulation from later subdivisions and to understand how the original arrangement of principal rooms and service spaces had evolved.
This established a clear hierarchy for intervention. The principal façade, staircase, glazed dome, historic windows, joinery, decorative features and significant primary walls were identified for retention and repair, while later partitions, lowered ceilings and modern hotel fittings offered greater scope for selective removal and reconfiguration.
The resulting conservation strategy sought to retain and repair significant fabric, remove intrusive later alterations where this would recover historic character, and introduce new work through limited and lightweight interventions. New en-suite accommodation was incorporated within the established structural framework, while important elements of historic circulation were retained to preserve an understanding of the building's spatial hierarchy.
The project demonstrates that conservation is not achieved by retaining every existing element. Through careful investigation and assessment of significance, selective removal can reveal historic plan form, recover room proportions and reinforce the architectural character of a listed building, while allowing it to continue in viable contemporary use.
