The Mayfair Townhouse

Hitachi’s MRL elevators chosen for one of London’s Iconic Luxury Hotels. 

by Mark Stephen Jones

Acquired in 2017 by L+R Hotels for their Iconic Luxury Hotels division, the 15 terraced Georgian buildings, seven of which are Grade II listed, are in the heart of London’s Mayfair. These structures date back to the 1730s and are located within Mayfair’s Conservation Area. 

Close to Hyde Park, Mayfair is one of London’s most affluent areas, and includes Hanover Square, Berkeley Square and Grosvenor Square, which are some of London’s best-known squares. Most of Mayfair was originally owned by the Grosvenor family, whose male descendants hold the title of the Duke of Westminster. The area is recognised for its royal and affluent residents, as well as its flamboyant history dating back to the late 1800s and into the early 1900s.

The hotel, under the new ownership of L+R Hotels, underwent a major construction project to create a new, stylish and luxurious destination for London’s discerning travellers. Located on the site of the former Hilton Hotel, Green Park at 27-41 Half Moon Street, construction work started in 2018. 

The project included the demolition of the existing fourth floor and roof, and the construction of an extension within the existing rear terrace of 8 Half Moon Street. Included in this work was the reconstruction of the fourth floor, with an additional mansard roof at the fifth-floor level, to provide a further seven bedrooms. This additional construction work allowed for the creation of a new elevator shaft and the extension of an existing one, thus enabling an overrun at the new roof level. This also allowed for the reinstatement of the Juliet balconies at the first-floor level, along with other construction and fit-out improvements to the buildings.

Temple Lifts, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., was originally approached back in 2019 to discuss L+R Hotels’ requirements for the installation of two high-quality, bespoke machine-room-less (MRL) passenger elevators and one MRL goods elevator. Hitachi has been manufacturing elevators for around 100 years and in 2016 introduced a new globally standardised MRL elevator based on Hitachi’s successful standard MRL elevator sold in the Japanese market. The Hitachi ON1 MRL elevator forms part of their global MRL elevator range. 

At the time of the enquiry, Temple Lifts could not show a U.K. installation of the EN compliant Hitachi ON1 MRL elevator. However, there was a significant number of project references dating back several years, along with detailed performance data to illustrate quality and reliability, both of which were high on L+R Hotels’ agenda. 

Subsequently, an order was placed with Temple Lifts for the U.K.’s first two Hitachi ON1 MRL elevators and one MRL goods elevator. However, as the pandemic arrived in early 2020, everything changed with all the construction and fit-out work, including the lift shafts, being delayed. Fortunately, at that time, manufacturing was well underway and shipping of the drives, shaft equipment, controllers, doors and door gear was in hand, with an anticipated delivery date in early 2020. The bespoke elevator cars being manufactured in England were also on schedule, including the leather finishes and antique mirrors. 

With construction work still being permitted under the first lockdown, Temple Lifts worked closely with L+R Hotels to help ensure the 2020 planned opening of The Mayfair Townhouse was not delayed due to the elevator installations. This required Temple Lifts installation engineers to closely follow the Government’s COVID-19 Social Distancing guidelines, resulting in strict isolation from the other trades working at the premises at that time to minimise any risks to the team.

As the elevator installations moved towards the handover date, the Temple Lifts installation team focused on ride quality and performance testing, along with benchmarking the results against other MRL elevators.

As the elevator installations moved towards the handover date, the Temple Lifts installation team focused on ride quality and performance testing, along with benchmarking the results against other MRL elevators. Much to the delight of The Mayfair Townhouse’s management, the ride test standards that were originally specified for this premium new luxury hotel were exceeded. One of the visual tests was to place a £1 and 20p coin each freestanding on the elevator car floor with the hope they would remain vertical with the lift running from basement to floor 5. Although unconventional and far from scientific, the coins remained in place and vertical throughout the start, travel and stop period. 

Although the elevators were handed over and placed in service for the hotel in time for the intended 2020 opening, the hotel’s management decided, because of the continuing pandemic, to postpone the opening of The Mayfair Townhouse until 2021. 

Finally, in May of 2021, The Mayfair Townhouse, part of the Iconic Luxury Hotels’ portfolio, opened with an abundance of positive press reviews. This premium hotel and its 172 individually designed guest rooms and suites all have one thing in common — a luxuriant and decadent style of the era of Oscar Wilde: playful, colourful and flamboyant.

Now approaching two years in service, all parties have been impressed with the performance of the two Hitachi ON1 MRL elevators. Not only have they continued to exceed their ride quality expectations, but importantly, and certainly noteworthy, they have not experienced any performance issues requiring an engineer visit.