Small but perfectly formed rooms

A new hotel set to be built in Camden, London might well provide some speedy housekeeping tasks – but its cleaners will have to be prepared for work in some tight corners.

Planning approval for the seven-storey Roundhouse Hotel on a corner site by Chalk Farm underground station has been granted to developer Henigman. Designers Piercy & Company say it will contain 59 rooms typically just 2.1m wide and 4.5m deep, so we’re not expecting any king-size beds to change here, but then the hotel is intended for single occupancy and short stays. It will be the official hotel partner of The Roundhouse live performance venue and will sit between that and the tube station, replacing a 1980s built mixed use building which is itself a replica of a 19th-century property, but with little architectural merit.

The Adelaide Tavern had previously stood there since the late 1800s and the design of the new hotel has been a talking point, with a big effort going in to provide a fit with both its Grade II listed neighbours. It may look a bit ‘industrial’ but that is a characteristic of the area as it’s developed over the past couple of centuries, and the arched windows have a Victorian warehouse feel, with added ‘softness’ provided by light-coloured masonry.