Image Credit : Gareth Gardner
Project Overview
‘Once one of Britain’s great Victorian railway hotels, the five-storey, four-star, 159-bedroomed Royal York has been beautifully revamped, thanks to a £15million makeover that has not only restored former glories, but created one of the city’s finest and most impressive places to down bags.’
(The Telegraph)
‘Stepping through the doors, you enter a world where classic and contemporary combine to impressive effect. Even as you’re being wowed by the period architectural features – decorative pillars, dramatic arches and, most of all, the magnificent cast-iron staircase at the heart of the hotel – you’re simultaneously soothed by the elegant, subdued colour scheme of soft greys, tans and off whites. High quality materials provide a feeling of luxe, while quirky finishing touches supply interest and character.’
(Destination Capita Travel and Events Magazine)
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Goddard Littlefair is a luxury interior house, founded by Martin Goddard and Jo Littlefair in 2012, after 20 years’ experience of leading projects in the design and architectural industry at some of London’s biggest-name practices. The company’s fast growth and the plaudits it has amassed in the media and award schemes have seen it become a major player in a relatively short space of time.
Goddard Littlefair currently works in the following sectors: developer and private residential schemes; hotels, spas and on individual hospitality projects, such as bars, cafes and restaurants. We are also currently working with clients outside these domains about applying our luxury design expertise to the worlds of healthcare and retail, as well as yacht and maritime interiors.
Martin Goddard and Jo Littlefair closely direct the company’s design ethos, which is based on human responses to an environment - space, light, textures and ?nishes – and the great creative collaboration that comes from having real trust and understanding with each and every client, partner and supplier.
As people, the Goddard Littlefair team are responsive, flexible and outward-facing, dedicated to great results for our clients and their end-users. As designers we are great listeners and passionate about our subject, with an impeccable eye for fine detail. We understand that true luxury is tactile, sensory and more than surface-deep; that is has to be as seductive at first sight as it flawless under close examination.
Goddard Littlefair’s clients include: Canary Wharf Group; Qatari Diar; Corinthia Hotels; Berkeley Homes; CIT; The Gleneagles Hotel; Ennismore; Starwood Capital Hotels; Hilton Hotels and Intercontinental Hotels. Our project work takes us all over the world and we currently have live or completed projects in the UK, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Austria and Russia. Our most recent public domain work has been for The Gleneagles Hotel and the Royal York Hotel in the UK. Our projects have been published all over the world in leading design, hospitality and property journals, as well as in national newspapers such as The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday.
Here’s what the papers say:
‘World-class interior design firm’
(BELLE Magazine, Australia)
‘Outstanding interior design company’
(Decoration Digest, Spain)
‘Internationally renowned’
(Robb Report, USA)
‘Goddard Littlefair is sought after because their work is consistently good and predictably unique’
(9fi5th property magazine, USA)
In 2015, our residential projects won both an ‘Evening Standard New Homes Award’ and a ‘Sunday Times British Homes Award’, whilst our hotel interiors won Gold at the London Design Awards. Our newly-completed refurbishment of the Royal York Hotel has just been named ‘Hotel of the Year’ at the Visit York Awards and is shortlisted twice over for the European Hotel Design Awards 2016.
http://www.goddardlittlefair.com
Project Brief
For the Royal York Hotel, the client asked for an overall interior scheme that would breathe life back into every artery of the interior of this great British railway hotel, reinstating the hotel’s essential character and paying respect to its original architecture and era, whilst at the same time creating a sense of comfort, restfulness and elegance, to help position the hotel as a great destination to spend time in - and a highly practical place to stay for visitors to the city, given its location alongside York railway station.
The design scheme created a relaxed, country-house feel with easy and unintimidating sophistication. The interior scheme is warm, welcoming, comfortable and elegant. It’s also relaxed; guests feel immediately at ease within it.
Project Innovation/Need
This project was about answering every contemporary need for comfort, tactility, welcome and warmth, creating the atmosphere and feeling of a relaxed country house, whilst at the same time fully respecting history and heritage and the wonderful sense of excitement these great Victorian railway hotels embody via their natural grandeur and proportions. Creating a sense of place was very important, with artworks referencing York Races and images incorporated from historic society gatherings in York, for example, particularly involving the Duke and Duchess of York.
Every aspect of the scheme was very carefully considered, so that the heights of the seats correspond perfectly with the table heights, for example, so that people an easily eat and drink in the public and lounge spaces. Custom-made mirrors feature antiqued glass set within carved, silver gilt frames and are a great way of indulging visitors’ desires for subtle people-watching, as well as increasing a sense of space. The bedrooms were to be designed to be very relaxing, answering a brief to be residential in feel and scale so that guests feel at ease the moment the suitcases are out of their hands.
Design Challenge
The design team faced all the challenges one would expect from an existing property, which had undergone a lot of wear and tear and had lost some essential essence and character along the way. We did have to make some structural changes to improve navigation and flow, including creating a double-height opening into the Garden Lounge and moving the location of the reception, with a new emphasis on a primary entrance to the hotel from the garden side. The main challenge, however, was the effective sequencing of works whilst the hotel stayed open throughout. This is a hugely popular hotel and it simply wasn’t possible for it to close down for an extended period.
Circulation space was unified to create a sense of a hub, with the ‘business’ of arrival contained within a relocated reception area, to the side, so the overall space feels less transient. The ground floor has been opened up, so that guests immediately see the series of spaces from front to back and are clear about where to sit and how to get to the restaurant. The new sequencing now simply feels inevitable.
‘The sheer size of the building naturally lends itself to a lofty grandeur but the design aspects and furnishings have taken 4 Star Luxury to another level.’
(LifestyleYorkshire.com)
Sustainability
We worked with all listed features and stipulations and, wherever possible, retained and enhanced original features such as cornicing and joinery, as well as ensuring as much LED and low-energy lighting usage as possible.
Wherever possible, we have tried to integrate local colour and history, including, for example, architectural drawings of Castle Howard and other local stately homes, as well as antique maps.
The antique books were part of a set of antique objects, hand-picked by us from antique markets around the country for this project, including old trunks for example and beautiful stone dogs. These fulfill two purposes – first to suggest heritage and reflect the hotel’s long-standing and established reputation and secondly as one of several ways to ensure that the environment is unique and not filled with things you might see in other places.
Interior Design - Hospitality
This award celebrates innovative and creative building interiors, with consideration given to space creation and planning, furnishings, finishes, aesthetic presentation and functionality. Consideration also given to space allocation, traffic flow, building services, lighting, fixtures, flooring, colours, furnishings and surface finishes.
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