A new luxury hospitality brand is to kick off in the UK with a remake of a hotel in the tourism hotspot of Hampton Court.
The Mitre, Hampton Court will be the first hotel from The Signet Collection and is set to open in mid-September.
The hotel will be within a Grade II-listed property that dates back to 1665 and was originally used as ancillary accommodation for guests of King Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace.
Set on the Thames, the 36-bedroom hotel will include a 60-cover riverside all-day dining and wine bar, a 70-cover brasserie and bar, a 60-cover Orangery, a large riverside terrace, meeting rooms and private dining areas.
The plan is to have around five hotels in The Signet Collection, with the next hotel coming early in 2021.
Behind the brand is Hector Ross, former chief executive officer of Beaverbrook, the high-end country-house hotel in Surrey, and the hotels also share a designer connection in Nicola Harding, the interior designer for The Mitre, who also helped create Beaverbrook.
“We be starting off with a special place,” said Ross. “All of our hotels will have history, stories to tell and be imbued with generations of tales, legacies, myths and legends. We unearth these stories, we restore them, reimagine them, and pass them on for our guests to enjoy, layered with a British sense of humour, top-notch F&B and memorable experiences.”
He added that The Mitre will combine “quirky British sensibility with elegant authentic luxury”, with Harding known for her work at The Rose Hotel in Deal as well as the Garden House at Beaverbrook.
Ronnie Kimbugwe will be the company’s culinary and operations director, with a background including the Gordon Ramsay group at Claridges and Bel and Dragon Country Inns, where he created a successful group of gastropubs across the south of England.