Sanderson Hotel (formerly Sanderson House)

Sanderson Hotel (formerly Sanderson House)

The Sanderson Hotel is a Grade II* listed building comprising a substantial commercial and residential complex built around a central courtyard. The structure employs an in-situ concrete frame with columns placed on a 27-foot grid, supporting curtain-walled exterior with hollow aluminium mullions carrying the services. Solid areas to the ends of the main block and to the rear are faced in brick, Portland stone and glazed faience.

The building comprises three main wings arranged around a central courtyard. The front east range to Berners Street extends to seven storeys, with a nine-storey tower block set at right-angles to the south and a lower five-storey wing parallel to this to the north. The west side of the courtyard is enclosed by a three-storey link range overlooking Wells Mews. The wings are only 45 feet deep to allow for maximum daylight penetration to the showrooms. As originally built, the middle part of the building, including the courtyard, formed part of the vehicle circulation, with the central garden forming an island between 'in' and 'out' routes leading via ramps to the basement car park. The south side contained the main retail entrance, with lobby, lifts and stairs rising to the showrooms, which totalled 34,000 square feet and occupied much of the first, second and third floors. These included a double-height display space in the tower area surrounded by a gallery. A second entrance to the north gave access to the trade counter with a separate stair and lifts serving the offices and studios on the upper floors. Following the hotel conversion of 2001, the whole ground floor was enclosed to form an enlarged lobby, bar and restaurant, with vehicle access now only possible from Wells Mews to the rear. The first floor was subdivided to form a spa, gym and guest bedrooms, with further bedrooms occupying the floors above.

The 230-foot front elevation to Berners Street presents a continuous sheer slab of curtain walling that floats above the recessed ground floor. A four-foot-six-inch module determines the proportions. Windows are aluminium-framed sliding sashes with spandrel panels of opaque fired glass—turquoise on the first floor and grey above. Sharply-profiled aluminium mullions run unbroken from the first to the sixth floor. The seventh floor is set back as a penthouse with a floating cornice above. The entrance, marked by a deep cantilevered canopy and lettered fascia, is positioned off-centre to the left on the axis of the tower, with glazing set slightly deeper between the mullions to give further emphasis in oblique views. The ground-floor columns, set nine feet back behind the cantilevered upper storeys, are sheathed in black Kellymount marble; the spaces between are now infilled with frameless glass panels. The service stairwells at either end are faced in Portland stone with green slate panels marking the exit doors.

The tower block and north wing are treated in a similar fashion to the Berners Street range. In contrast to the crystalline purity of the front elevation, the rear elevation to Wells Mews presents a zigzag building line and an assortment of different shapes and materials, with blue-green faience cladding to the ends of the tower block and north range, and brown brick used for the lower elements between. Two large entrances to the car park are located in the centre, with a delivery bay featuring a canopied pedestrian entrance alongside to the left.

The entrance lobby contains an abstract marble and glass mosaic by Jupp Dernbach-Mayen cladding the outer wall of the lift enclosure, affixed to which is a plaque commemorating the laying of the foundation stone by Ivan Sanderson on 1st May 1957. To the rear of the lobby is the principal stair, a flying structure with open timber treads and a slender balustrade of polished aluminium. Behind this is a large back-lit stained glass mural by John Piper—his largest secular work—executed by Patrick Reyntiens, displaying stylised plant forms against blocks of brilliant colour. The mural measures 32 feet by 21 feet. The stair rises only as far as the first floor; more modest concrete stairs at the ends of the building give access to the upper levels.

At the heart of the building is a courtyard surrounded by marble-clad columns and now glazed in to form an open-air extension to the hotel's restaurant and bar. The central feature is an 'architectural garden' designed by Philip Hicks with sculpture by Dernbach-Mayen, of Japanese inspiration, comprising a raised area containing gravel, moss and boulders surrounded by slate paving, planting and a rectangular fountain pool. To the rear is a mural featuring slabs of polished grey marble shot through with veins of coloured mosaic. To the fore is a marble plinth bearing a bowl-like sculpture in polished black basalt.