IN Brief:
- IHG has signed a 90-room Hotel Indigo at Kingston Bridge House, with opening targeted for 2027.
- Westcombe says the current conversion has planning approval for 22 apartments, including four affordable homes.
- The developer’s older website describes a different scheme; the latest drawings and council decision require reconciliation.
Westcombe Group says planning approval has been secured for the conversion of Kingston Bridge House in Hampton Wick into a 90-room Hotel Indigo and 22 apartments, including four affordable homes. On 26 October 2026, IHG Hotels & Resorts separately confirmed an agreement to operate the hotel, which will be owned by Westcombe through its Acre Hotels Collection. Opening is targeted for 2027; the final council decision notice and a detailed construction programme have not been independently established in the records reviewed.
The £20m scheme would reuse a vacant former university accommodation building on Church Grove. It is an adaptive reuse project rather than construction on a cleared site, requiring the existing structure to accommodate residential and hotel functions. Room arrangements, protected escape routes, plant capacity and circulation must be reconciled with the geometry and condition of the retained floors. The project will also create a more complex operational arrangement than the building’s former single institutional use.
IHG confirms the current hotel proposal contains 90 guestrooms, while the accompanying residential development contains 22 homes. Westcombe describes a restaurant, bar and conference facilities for the hotel. These uses will create different levels of occupancy, servicing, waste handling and access throughout the day. The design will need to separate residential and guest movements as appropriate, while coordinating acoustic treatment, building services, fire compartmentation and maintenance provision across the mixed-use property.
The planning description circulated for application PA26/0355 refers to conversion from student accommodation, façade alterations, ground-floor infill, a four-storey lift structure, revised landscaping, access and refuse facilities. It specifies 22 homes including four affordable units. That description is consistent with the development announced in October, although the independently accessible planning tracker still showed an outstanding decision when last checked. Westcombe’s approval claim is therefore attributed to the developer pending confirmation from the council’s own decision record.
Vehicle access, deliveries and refuse collection must be accommodated on a built-up site close to neighbouring homes and local businesses. The proposals include changes to the crossover and parking arrangements, putting the relationship between construction logistics and long-term servicing into the scope of the redevelopment. Any refurbishment programme would also have to manage pedestrian routes and works to the existing exterior. The final construction traffic arrangements and contractor appointments have not been published.
The project has evolved through more than one consultation version. An older Westcombe project website describes 106 hotel rooms and 28 flats, including 10 affordable homes, figures that differ from the 26 October IHG announcement and the current 90-room, 22-home planning description. The older illustrations and specifications cannot be treated as a definitive account of the latest approved design. Confirmed current features should therefore be drawn from IHG’s signing announcement and the corresponding submitted planning particulars.
Retaining and converting the existing building could avoid demolition of substantial structural elements, but its carbon effect depends on the fabric kept, additional strengthening and the materials introduced. The latest announcement provides no verified assessment of embodied carbon or completed building energy performance. Changes to the building envelope would have to be coordinated with weather protection, thermal performance, glazing, service penetrations and the retained structural frame. Design measures described in earlier consultation material, including a roof garden, need confirmation against the latest drawings.
Building services will require particular attention because a hotel places different demands on domestic hot water, ventilation, cooling and circulation than student accommodation. Residential apartments will have their own occupancy patterns and service management requirements. Conversion work may therefore require new risers, metering, controls and plant access within a fixed existing footprint. The latest announcements do not identify the installed heating technology, MEP contractor or detailed commissioning plan, leaving the specific approach to these interfaces unconfirmed.
IHG says the hotel will be the seventh Hotel Indigo in Greater London and expects to open it in 2027. Westcombe estimates that the wider redevelopment will support about 50 operational jobs and approximately 9,000 hotel visits annually. Those numbers are forecasts, not measured project outcomes. The stated £20m describes development investment and should not be confused with a disclosed main construction contract sum. The hospitality agreement confirms the intended operator and brand but is separate from the appointment of building contractors.
The next test of progress is the council’s definitive planning record, followed by a construction programme and detailed design showing how the 90-room hotel and 22 apartments will be served within the retained building. The distinction between the older consultation scheme and the newly announced operating agreement is central to assessing both the physical scope and the likely delivery timetable. Until the current approved drawings can be matched to the developer’s announcement, the confirmed project remains a planned conversion with a 2027 hotel opening target.
