Forum Topic

GWQ Hotel

What is the latest information about the work on the hotel?  Does anyone know when it's due to be completed?

Elizabeth Jane Parslow ● 5507d28 Comments

The "Bonnington Hotel" conversion of the Gillette Building seems to have stalled too. The views from the top of the planned "Skylon" hotel will be pretty impressive..Windsor Castle and Heathrow to the west, the Epsom Downs grandstands to the South..and of course the London skyline.

Jim Lawes ● 5507d

Here was the scene 14 months ago. Perhaps not much has happened since and the "expensive to hire tower crane" is still in position waiting for the go go go.Are you wanting to place a booking or throw a Forum party?

Jim Lawes ● 5507d

Sad that Brentford has become a dormitory town.Considering its proud history,that is.

Keith Iddon ● 5507d

Maybe by the time it's finished I will have saved enough for a party!  No reason for enquiring really, other than the fact that I'm fed up with the view shown in your photo - whatever it's going to look like, the finished building will have to look better than this.

Elizabeth Jane Parslow ● 5506d

Proud.It was a terrible place to live in in the eighteenth century and probably in some of the 19th as well.

George Knox ● 5506d

Do you speak from experience ,George?;-)

Keith Iddon ● 5506d

Ho Ho Keith.Read British History Online. There is some fascinating stuff.

George Knox ● 5506d

There has been much work on the GWQ site during the past two months and a quite massive apartment block is now more than half way built. Is that the Simmonds House?Simmonds was the name of the aeronautical engineering factory that was located once at the Ealing Road end. So once that's up and marketed..all eyes will be on the look-out for Skylon Hotel which will offer the London skyline views.I personally won't have 10 years to wait..so they'd better hurry up!

Jim Lawes ● 5506d

I was on the Thames Towpath near Hammersmith Bridge this evening..and there on the distant horizon was the new Brentford landmark.  It really is dominating but will probably look splendid when it's finished.Here's a view from one of the Haverfield Tower Blocks recently.

Jim Lawes ● 4931d

Yuk!

Keith Iddon ● 4931d

Did we not hear that this will not be hotel? There was a change of designation to residential. And looking close at where there is glass installed - there appears to be julliete balconies fitted. Not typical hotel features. Or is this still to be a hotel?

Alan Clark ● 4931d

Alan I think you are right - the website is now taking registrations of interest in purchasing flats in the GWQ Tower although it does still make reference to a hotel on the site. I also see that the Waldorf Astroia has rebranded as a Hilton - I gather they couldn't get the room rates required to be branded as a Waldorf and have had to go down market. I must admit I was always puzzled by the business model.

Chris Broadbent ● 4931d

I'd really love to sit on a balcony watching the cars on the A4 and breathing in the lovely fresh air....especially being even nearer the planes and their noise and pollution too.Luxury indeed.Looks like a massive and ugly Pringles tube.

Keith Iddon ● 4931d

I absolutley hate it.It seems to loom over the whole area.  The shadow it casts in the evening ( if there is sunshine ) reaches all the way to South Ealing and the whole area has become really windy on the ground around it.Tower blocks were not a good idea in the 60's and I don't see any reason why they are a good idea now. They will still eventually become huge costly problems.

Michael Brandt ● 4930d

Also what on earth is that giant TV screen to the left of the giant "Pringles" tower in Jim's picture?

Jennifer Selig ● 4929d

That's the longstanding advertisement display on the elevation of the Alfa Laval building.

Adam Beamish ● 4929d

Isn't it a welcome beacon for Brentford? "NO!"

Jim Lawes ● 4928d

It is horrible Jim. Thanks for your pictures. Took awhile to recognise Burford Road. You must have been way up there in that tower block.

Audrey Walton ● 4928d

It feels like a total intrusion of pricacy, This structure fills every window in the house. Lost about half the natural light and we are not that near it.It really is 10 storeys too high.But what a ghastly place to locate dwellings, Along one of europes busiest roads,  between a railway that is to see traffic quadruple in the near future, under a flight path and is now listed by the CAA as a Hazard! ON a site designated 70 years ago for industry.And quality local jobs and first class working environment would be  far more appropriate.It would have been better to relocate Hounslow Civic centre there. and build houses on the Lampton Road site. Far better place to have homes rather than a site where the windows have to be shut all year round.

Raymond Havelock ● 4928d

There was a pretty horrible tower in that location before but we could only just see the top of it. This one seems huge and it does block out a large part of the sky from every window at the back of the house. We can see it from every part of the back garden too.It does seem to intrude considerably on privacy.With such a large intrusive footprint, one does wonder how it got the go ahead without the planning application notifying all those who may be affected. I have to say it seems a lot taller and larger than anything in the proposals, the models and the images.Will the windows have to be opaque to prevent intrusion into overlooking properties?

Anthony Waller ● 4928d

And hopefully they've remembered to construct the Champagne Bar above!  Just can't wait to get away from the next door neighbour's dreadful front garden!

Jim Lawes ● 4884d

Don't you mean cider bar Jim? I wonder why you don't move closer to this abomination so that you can see it from your back window like many of us have to,without being consulted thankyou very much.How is your one man garden crusade going anyway? ;-)

Keith Iddon ● 4884d

I think this image answers the question, how did this development get planning permission. The first glossy plans were originally sent out to some households in 2008, before the financial crash and subsequent recession. Naively we believed the marketing hype about restaurants, cafes and a luxury hotel. How much wiser we all are now. Developments never look like the glossy computerised images in the brochure. Where are the open green spaces and piazzas by the way? It looks like a concrete jungle to me.

Katy Whelan ● 4879d

P.S By image I meant the picture Jim originally posted at the start of the thread.

Katy Whelan ● 4879d

Damn right Katy...most developments are like the old pictures in the Wimpy restaurants.When your meal arrives,it looks like summat completely different...

Keith Iddon ● 4879d

It was going to be such a glorious Brentford icon.... over 300 feet tall....a real beauty... but the end result seems awful.Funny reflective glass... ugly "champagne bar" feature on top of the roof,ugly entrance with non-emotive foyer lighting... and then the shambles outside when trying to park the car to visit the Sainsburys.Apologies for returning to this old thread... but I wanted to admit to making a mistake predicting the Tower's appearance. I now agree with others.

Jim Lawes ● 4059d

I'm relatively indifferent to the building, although I agree regarding the top floor, which can be seen for miles around and reminds me of these ugly lift shafts you seen projecting above the roofs of older building - it seems more of an afterthought than an integral part of the building.I disagree about the parking, its intended to serve the immediate locality/population, not for Joe Bloggs to take their car there to do the weekly shop - got to get people out of relying on their cars.

Adam Beamish ● 4056d

Undecided about the building but can highly recommend the Boki Coffee cafe at the bottom.  http://www.urbanvilla.com/eat-drink/boki

Reg Ghosh ● 4054d