Thursday, 7 March 2013

A room for London

This Room for London is a one -bedroom temporary room, in the form of a boat, installed on the top of Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre. It Iooks like it has been left stranded by the tide on the top of the building.




 Its intention is to give guests the extraordinary experience of viewing London from an unusual perspective, being in one of the busiest riverbank locations but being above the flow of human traffic. The experience is described as 'poetic and life-enhancing' and guests are invited to write about their time spent in the boat.




Anyone can stay here (just for one night) but bookings are made via a ballot as it has become so popular. The cost is £300 per night which just' covers the running costs of having A Room for London on the roof of Southbank Centre, which includes the hire of a dedicated lift to take people up to the roof, daily cleaning and laundry, maintenance, insurance, other operating expenses and VAT.  The nightly rental only just covers these costs and therefore couldn’t be set any lower.  The boat is actually quite large - with separate kitchenette, living space, an upstairs library and deck - bigger than an average hotel room, with the most amazing view of central London (from St Paul’s Cathedral to the London Eye). We have tried to keep the nightly price as low as we operationally can, and hope that people will see it as good value compared to other hotel rooms on the Thames.' 
Living Architecture
The designers are hoping that the boat will be moved to other iconic locations in the future.

11 comments:

  1. The cost would be worth it for the views .... Imagine the night-time vista. - and the photography opportunities.

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  2. Not sure I'd want to spend 300 quid for a view

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  3. Inventive to have a one-night at a boat ... but I hope not that this is an average price for a hotel?

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  4. What a neat place... I can see why that 'room' is so popular. That would be neat to spend one night there for sure... Love it!!!

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  5. I can think of worse things to spend £300 on when travelling. Great idea.

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  6. What a cool place to spend a night!

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  7. What a splendid (but deeply silly!) idea.

    Todays cricket was not much better than yesterdays!

    Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

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  8. That is SO cool!! And what's a cool 300 between friends anyway?!?! Have a great weekend!!

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  9. Must be exciting to spend a night up there ! But to this price I prefer to take a sightseeing bus, lol !

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  10. This sounds like a very unique and enjoyable room for a night in London. Thank you for your birthday greetings.

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  11. Cool idea, even though it requires a stop to rob a bank beforehand... :p

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