For a long time the only hotels on the south bank of the Thames were low budget ‘flop houses’ or b&b establishments. It took foreign owned hotel groups to wake up to the potential of sites in Southwark, Greenwich and Lambeth led by Accor and Scandik. Park Plaza took this unlikely site, sandwiched between a main road and the railway into Waterloo terminus, and gained some of the best views in London as well as leading the regeneration of this part of Lambeth.

Ironic really that for many years hotels were built on the north bank with views of the industrial dereliction that characterised much of the old dock and industrial areas of south London (it is not generally realised that over 40% of England’s industrial production was within the Greater London area until the 1950’s). Hotels on the south bank gain views of the Houses of Parliament and the supposedly more salubrious areas of the north bank.

The Park Plaza building capitalises on its position by giving all the front of the building over to suites, and has taken the step of giving these a separate identity to the Park Plaza that occupies the main part of the structure. The result is the Plaza on the River, a five star hotel within an hotel, where the suites have spectacular views either downriver towards the London Eye and Parliament or up river towards Battersea and Chelsea. The importance of the views is emphasised by the creation of discreet balconies that look onto the river and to the Tate Britain on the north bank.

The location not only gives fantastic views but is an easy walk to rail and tube stations, and a major bus/rail interchange. The convenience of this location obviously brings with it the noise from traffic, both road, rail and river, but the architect has not only deployed soundproofing double glazing but the large glass screens fixed in front of the buildings elevations are very effective in themselves in reducing any noise intrusion. The result is an hotel that has lower sound levels in the bedroom than the same company’s property in Victoria.

Whilst the suites are a result of a decision to maximise the value of the views to the property the same logic has not been applied throughout the building and most of the public areas seek quiet by turning themselves inwards into the property. Thus restaurant and bars have no views, whilst the less used function room has a spectacular outlook over the river. This suggests a building led by an architect and client from out of town, and given an orientation of spaces internally that has led to some operational problems. There are also signs that the use of some of the spaces was decided after the architecture was fixed, with the result that some have compromised functionality.