Could this be the country’s coolest new luxury hotel? It’s certainly London's

At around 2:10pm on Thursday 13 July, something significant happened in Mayfair. Known as the heart of London’s artworld; one of the capital’s financial hubs; home to the lush pocket of Green Park; and site of iconic hotels such as The Ritz, Claridge’s and The Connaught – the area can also now boast one of the city’s most sustainable hotels.

1 Hotels has finally arrived in the UK, bringing an eight-storey hotel with 181 guest rooms and suites; Dovetale restaurant by two Michelin-starred chef Tom Sellers; Dover Yard, a signature cocktail bar and lounge featuring a sustainable drinks programme; Neighbours, a lively daytime café and evening bar; and a Bamford Wellness Spa. But not only does it tick a lot of great hotel boxes, 1 Hotel Mayfair also offers up a template for modern luxury.  

The site was formerly a Holiday Inn, whose forecourt led to an alley often used by locals as a cut-through from Berkeley Street to Dover Street. A fairly unimpressive 1970s box, it was taken over by the developer more than 12 years ago and ran as a Holiday Inn until January 2020. And then the world changed.

Such a location must have made this the country’s highest earning Holiday Inn, but the pandemic gave its owners the perfect opportunity to focus on the transformation. Also adjacent to it were old airline offices, and who remembers that Boots on the corner of Piccadilly and Berkeley Street?

This corner of otherwise swanky Mayfair was clearly ripe for redevelopment and all of it was scooped up by Crosstree, whose founding partner Sean Arnold is now proudly revealing One Berkeley Street, the mixed-use repositioning project that now includes the hotel, prime office rental and luxurious retail space.

Arnold says he believes in ‘second lives’ and wanted to do whatever he could to rehabilitate the bones of the Holiday Inn and its neighbours to forge a sustainable development project that would lift up the area. Lotus will now launch its new electric car in a huge corner showroom here, while Technogym will also launch a showroom on the block. Meanwhile, there has been no shortage of tenants for the new office space, and Arnold teases a significant restaurant is on the way too.