The Hilton London Kensington hotel goes back to its English roots

11th October 2011, 10:29am

The four star Hilton London Kensington has relaunched its WestEleven restaurant giving it a ‘traditional English feel’.

The redesign was project managed by a team of four hotel staff - operations manager Nathan White, maintenance manager Dragan Begovic, executive chef David Atkinson and food & beverage manager Huanita Mergerle. 

We find out what their main objectives were when fitting out the restaurant.

What was your aim when designing this venture?

We wanted to depict the local area hence the name of the restaurant being WestEleven. The Borough of Kensington & Chelsea is renowned for opulence, tree lined streets and open spaces. We wanted the restaurant to adopt more of a welcoming/homely environment that depicted the warmth of the borough whilst complementing the traditionally British menu that is available.

How did you achieve this? For example what fabric/furniture did you use?

This was achieved by injecting far more foliage into the area whilst using box hedging to divide areas of the restaurant creating more secluded booths for people to dine amongst. 5ft trees line the pillars in the restaurant and the "Cole & Son" wallpaper depicting bookcases were used to enclose open spaces and high ceilings creating more warmth to the sections of the restaurant along with canvasses, most of which were taken from photographs produced by the senior management team who live in the local area.

The centre of the restaurant and the food survey was obstructed by a huge pillar which now adorns some of the most spectacular views in London on each side including tower bridge and Nelsons column. Two leather regency chairs frame a back lit etched glass sketch of the local area at the entrance.

What would you describe as the key and unique features?

The wallpaper, centre column and entrance which has now been totally opened up into the hotel lobby with sleek and modern sliding glass doors that disappear.

Stage by stage how did you approach this project?

The unique attraction with this project is that we decided not to recruit a project manager and instead the senior mgt team including the head chef, chief engineer and food and beverage manager steered this project lead by the director of operations.

Where did you get your inspiration from?

British cuisine and the local area

What is the size of the venue?

It seats 140 people

Timetable, how long did it take from start to finish?

The refurbishment took just over a week however the planning was 12 weeks.

What do you like most about the design of the venue?

I am impressed with how we have managed to create a more intimate feel to the restaurant with the use of wallpapers, plants, foliage and artwork however what I like most about the design is that it was carried out by the people who work in the hotel and who are passionate about the industry, the hotel and the local area.

If you were to change anything on the design of this place, what would it be? And why?

There were not sufficient funds to do anything structurally however if there were we would look at removing some of the pillars to create even more space.

How important is feedback from your clients? What kind of feedback have you got?

The feedback so far has been positive and a recent promotion has seen us secure in excess of 800+ covers over the next few months which is very promising.

Do you think you used the space to the best of your ability?

This is a question that we always ask ourselves and considering that this restaurant can serve in excess of 700+ for a busy breakfast at the hotel, the new design enables us to far more easily create the right atmosphere for our evening diners.