The talk of London town

Early visitors were invited to tour the project site of the Corinthia Hotel in London. The £270 million development is one year away from completion, and is being hailed as the first new grand hotel to be built in London for over a century.

The building itself is a landmark, formerly the Ministry of Defence, straddling Northumberland Avenue and Whitehall Place, with panoramic views over Trafalgar Square, the River Thames and all of the major sights of Whitehall.

The Corinthia will feature a 300-bedroom luxury hotel, with the largest bedrooms in London, and include 45 suites, some located on duplex floors inside the historic turrets and serviced by private lifts and terraces.

zA 3,000 square metre spa, unique in its design and scope, will complement the hotel.

Furthermore, 12 ambassadorial apartments, the largest one occupying over 1,000 square metres, are being developed at the luxury end of the market, for eventual use as prime residences in central London.

As works progress, select members of the London establishment, opinion formers and associates of Corinthia are being invited to visit the project and see for themselves the new hotel unfolding before their eyes.

The first such gathering was held last recently, when senior directors from Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Coutts and Credit Suisse together with invitees from Harrods and the Prince's Regeneration Trust, were given a tour of the project personally conducted by Alfred Pisani, chairman of the Corinthia Group.

At the end of the tour, the guests were hosted to a lunch prepared on site in a temporary kitchen by Massimo Riccioli, the celebrated chef and owner of La Rosetta Restaurant in Rome, Italy, who has agreed to personally relocate to London to be the chef patron of the specialty restaurant at the Corinthia Hotel London.

The Corinthia Hotel and Residences in London is scheduled to open during the last quarter of 2010.