Courthouse Hotel Shoreditch

The brief

Converting a Victorian magistrates' court into a boutique hotel sets a high bar for anything you put inside it. The original stonework, ironwork and dramatic volumes are the reason guests come, so the brief for bespoke upholstery and custom window treatments was to work with that architecture rather than compete with or apologise for it.

Our approach

We began from the building. Window treatments were designed around the existing openings, which in a courthouse are neither standard sizes nor standard proportions, and upholstery was scaled to rooms with considerably more height than a modern hotel. Reupholstery was used where existing pieces were worth keeping, and new pieces were made to sit alongside them without an obvious seam between old and new.

Materials and fabrics

Fabric sourcing and specification formed a large part of this project. We selected materials with enough weight and texture to hold their own against stone and cast iron, in tones that complement the original fabric of the building. Everything specified still had to meet contract requirements for a working hotel, so performance and appearance were resolved together rather than traded off.

The result

The interior reads as though it belongs to the building. The bespoke elements support the original architecture instead of drawing attention away from it, which in a conversion of this kind is the difference between a hotel that feels genuine and one that feels dressed.