Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / United Kingdom / London / The Academy
The Academy
London, United Kingdom · Independent · Near Luxury
Five Georgian houses at 21 Gower Street, built in 1776 and listed with the brick terrace from 17 to 49, now hold fifty rooms. YTL Hotels owns the house. Champalimaud Design redid the rooms in 2018, and the lobby still leaves books out, Woolf and Forster among them, on a street that belongs to the university and the British Museum. From the pavement it still looks like a private house.
- 50 rooms
- Opened 2000
- Neighborhood: Bloomsbury
- Interiors: Champalimaud Design
About The Academy
- The terrace, Numbers 15A and 17 to 49 with their railings, was listed Grade II on 28 March 1969. The hotel sits inside that listing.
- Gower Street was cut through the Duke of Bedford's fields from the 1780s and named for the Earl of Gower's daughter. UCL started rising at the north end in 1827.
- The house is a Small Luxury Hotels of the World member. A garden and terrace sit behind the Georgian front, the quiet half of a loud street.
History
The Academy is five Georgian townhouses at 21 Gower Street, WC1E 6HG, built in 1776 and later joined. They form part of the Grade II terrace listed on 28 March 1969 as Numbers 15A and 17 to 49 and Attached Railings. The hotel opened in March 2000, with YTL Hotels as the owner and 50 rooms and suites. A Telegraph review remembers an older, stuffier hotel on the same houses, going back to the 1960s, before YTL bought it and started again.
In 2018 YTL and Champalimaud Design renovated the interiors. The public rooms nod at the Bloomsbury Group with books, including Virginia Woolf and E. M. Forster, which fits the street more than it fits a chain. The hotel is a Small Luxury Hotels of the World member. The guest-facing name is The Academy, not YTL.
The setting
21 Gower Street is Bloomsbury, on the Bedford estate street that runs from Bedford Square toward Euston Road. The British Museum is the neighbour to the south. UCL occupies the north end of the same street. Tottenham Court Road and the Elizabeth line are the modern walk west. This is a university street, not the West End.
Open The Academy in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.
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