Next year will bring a spate of openings in the capital. Renovations to the historic Regent Street Cinema are due to be completed by April 2015, when it will open to the public for the first time in 34 years. Lauded as the 'birthplace' of British cinema, it was used by pioneering filmmakers the Lumiere brothers to perform their first moving picture show in the UK in 1896. The venue will seat up to 200 guests for private screenings and product launches.
The new Hyatt Place London Heathrow hotel will open in spring 2015, offering 168sqm of event space in addition to 170 guestrooms, an open food market with made-to-order meals and snacks, and a fitness centre.
IET London: Savoy Place will reopen in the autumn of 2015 following a £30m, two-year refurbishment. Each floor of the venue is being reconfigured to maximise views over the Thames. Exact capacities are yet to be released, but it has been confirmed that the size of the venue's main suite, the Riverside Room, will be increased by more than 50 per cent. An entirely new facility, the Watson Watt Lecture Theatre, located in the lightwell area above the second-floor lecture theatre, will replace the venue's existing Council Chamber.
Europe's largest ballroom will be unveiled as part of new hotel InterContinental London The O2 on Greenwich Peninsula later in the year. The 3,000sqm pillar-free space will be complemented by a separate pre-function area with panoramic views across the Thames and Canary Wharf. The hotel will also feature 452 bedrooms, a health spa, numerous restaurants, a club lounge and a sky bar.
New York-based Gansevoort Hotel Group has been given the green light to open a property on Curtain Road in Shoreditch in 2015. An official launch date is yet to be given, but the hotel will feature more than 550sqm of dedicated event space, as well as 120 rooms, including seven suites.
Work is under way to transform the former Midland Bank headquarters in the City into the Soho House City Hotel. Soho House Group has partnered with New York hotel developer Sydell Group on the project, which includes converting the old bank vault - used in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger - into a bar that is likely to be available for private hire.
The end of 2015 will see the Design Museum relocate from its current site at Shad Thames to a new home at the former Commonwealth Institute on Kensington High Street. The new building will provide three times more space, with a 194-seat auditorium planned for the basement level. The second floor will contain a restaurant and permanent display of the museum's design collection, housed under the hyperbolic paraboloid roof that characterises the building.
Into 2016 and the new extension at the Tate Modern will be unveiled. The space, located at the south of the gallery, will enhance the museum's existing event facilities, which include the 800-capacity Turbine Hall and the 200-seat restaurant.
Plans are afoot to turn London landmark Admiralty Arch into a luxury hotel, flats and a private members' club with views of Buckingham Palace. The Grade I-listed building on the corner of the Trafalgar Square Conservation Area was built in 1911 to commemorate Queen Victoria's death. Work is likely to be completed some time in 2016.
The long-awaited Four Seasons Hotel and Residences at the 43-storey Heron Plaza on Bishopsgate is also expected to open in 2016. Plans for the luxury bolthole include 190 bedrooms and suites, 120 branded residences, state-of-the-art conference and banqueting facilities and a meetings and event space.
