Proposed Development
The proposed development encompasses a new high quality hotel located in the heart of Canterbury, offering 131 bedrooms and facilities to hotel residents and non-residents alike, including work, meeting and food & beverage services.
The hotel will be an internationally recognised brand and managed by one of the top global hotel management companies in order to ensure its success and capitalise from the many tourists, business travellers and visitors to Canterbury.
The existing Slatters Hotel is to be demolished and replaced as part of the new development, with the listed buildings to be repaired, renovated and retained.
Visitor and guest access to the hotel will be via St Margarets Street and through the renovated listed timber building, which will then open out into the lobby, foyer and dining area to the rear of the hotel.
The adjacent and renovated listed Georgian building will form a separate entrance from St Margarets Street for a dedicated entrance to the new roof-top restaurant.
Independent of the hotel and roof-top restaurant entrances along St Margarets Street, we are also proposing smaller commercial units which would be suitable for retail, office or café type tenants.
This will be stepped back slightly from the existing foot-path in order to nurture and encourage an alfresco environment and bring more life to the street scene.
In designing the elevation and façade of the new scheme we have taken references from other historical buildings and landmarks in Canterbury, including the cathedral and St Margarets Church.
The materiality and elements in the design of the scheme will therefore be modern with traditional accents, and will sit well in contrast alongside the more traditional context of the listed buildings being renovated.
The development is proposed to be five-storeys overall, plus the roof-top restaurant, but in order to protect the scene along St Margarets Street the building will be tiered back at the fourth and fifth-floors. The overall building height is also lower than the Whitefriars arcade which sits behind the hotel, but views from strategic locations around Canterbury have be measured to ensure that important lines of site are protected.
Whilst it is not proposed that any car-parking is to be located on site, we are in discussions with the operators of existing local public parking facilities, in order to secure dedicated spaces for future hotel guests. Additionally we have employed the services of specialist highways and traffic consultants to determine the impact of the proposed development, and recommend any appropriate transport mitigation measures.
All servicing and maintenance of the hotel, roof-top restaurant and ground-floor retail units would be from the existing rear yard, accessed from Rose Lane and thus avoiding any disturbance along St Margarets Street.
Having now obtained full planning permission at the end of 2015, we are now targeting "start on site" early 2017 with an opening date for late 2019.