YTL Hotels to refurbish The Academy
YTL Hotels has announced that the multi-million pound interior refurbishment of The Academy – a collection of five Georgian townhouses in London’s West End – will be completed in April 2018, adding to the Small Luxury Hotels of the World collection.
Overseen by New York-based designer Alexandra Champalimaud, the 50-key property will draw on the area’s heritage and encompass a design aesthetic inspired by The Bloomsbury Set, the influential group of writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists which included Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes and E.M. Forster. As with the interiors at YTL’s first British Property, The Gainsborough Bath Spa, Champalimaud Design will also juxtapose traditional features with a modern city style to create a contemporary take on townhouse living.
Bespoke furnishings in rich velvets and leather, fanciful patterns and tile floors will evoke a home from home ambience throughout guestrooms, while large sash windows, velvet chairs and marble bathrooms set the tone for a sophisticated space.
In addition to the redesign of The Academy’s guestrooms, a renovation of public spaces will see The Alchemy Bar re-housed on the ground floor, while the lower ground floor will inhabit The Refectory, an intimate breakfast room and function space.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ma’s Tea House Spa is set to reference 1920’s Bloomsbury and pay homage to Lao She’s acclaimed novel, Mr Ma and Son. Featuring a series of authentic Asian experiences, treatments include traditional body therapies such as a hot medicinal footbath followed by Zhi ya, Chinese reflexology and Tuina, a rhythmical acupressure to energise and balance the body.
A stone’s throw from The British Museum, local restaurants and shopping streets, the boutique hotel also houses two secluded gardens as a place of a refuge.
