The new CitizenM at Tower Hill will be the second citizenM in the city of London. Opposite the world famous Tower of London and right on top of one of London’s busiest subway station Tower Hill, a new constructed hotel has emerged. As a follow up on the successful citizenM Bankside this hotel is bigger and improved and will be CitizenM’s Flagship hotel in London. The hotel responds to its unique location in terms of views, architecture and program. Next to the 370 hotel rooms, CitizenM Tower of London offers a large ground floor lobby and a rooftop space for guests as well as locals. The ground floor includes a coffeeM for coffee to grab & go and pastries just around the corner of the subway exit. A 2 story SocietyM crowns on top of the building, a contemporary business centre for the people that mix business and fun, that turns into a rooftop bar for hotel guests and locals at night. The double height space with soft seating rooms and a long bar for the best drinks and snacks offers a stunning view over London.
THE ARCHITECTURE
The architecture of the building has been carefully designed to relate to the historic surroundings. The building has a clearly defined base, middle-section and top. The subway exit of Tower Hill Station has been fully integrated into the architectural design. The ground floor façade is open and transparent, bringing citizenM’s dynamic life onto the street. The ground floor connects, with an open floor plan, Trinity Square in the west with a public footpath in the east. Together with the subway exit it connects the building in multiple ways to its public surroundings. The typical red glazed entrance box marks the entrance to the hotel. A canopy wraps around three sides of the building, covering the entrances and subway exits and emphasizing the multiple frontages of the building. Artist Julian Opie created a bespoke piece of art that wraps around the south and east façade. On top of the traditionally built ground floor the prefabricated room modules are stacked to create the guestroom floors. The typical citizenM windows, that reflect the individual rooms, are still recognizable but framed together to create larger proportions to align with the adjacent buildings. In the middle of the building a courtyard provides daylight to the rooms and ground floor.
A double story, setback, glazed top ends the building. The two top floors house the societyM with 8 carefully designed meeting rooms, a rooftop bar and outdoor terrace, offering great views over the Thames, The Tower of London and the historic city center. Concrete designed the core and architectural lay-out of the building as well as all the interiors. Sheppard Robson Architects has designed the facade in close collaboration with Concrete.
THE ROOM
The underlying philosophy of citizenM has always been affordable luxury for the people. All the guest rooms are equipped with an amazing king-size bed and a great shower. The room is controlled with a tablet mood pad. The tablet allows guests to dim or colour the lights, close the curtains, climate control the room and watch television or connect your personal device to it, all through one device. To make life even easier, every room is equipped with a small desk with sockets to charge all mobile devices whatever the plugs’ origin. Guests can personalise their room to feel even more at home by changing the colour of the lights. Each room has two artworks selected by The Public House of Art in collaboration with citizenM.
THE LOBBY
The ground floor lobby is the playground of citizenM for people to work, eat, meet, drink and play. This hotel offers everything you know from citizenM topped off with something extra. The ground floor connects Trinity Square with a public footpath in the rear. It is one open space divided by cabinets and steel net curtains to create separate, more intimate spaces and living rooms. In the middle of the space there is a large skylight under de bedroom’s courtyard, which brings daylight deep into the building. The courtyard is activated with a spectacular kinetic artwork designed especially for citizenM by Amsterdam based Studio Drift.
A few of these lights are hung under the skylight in the ground floor area, energizing this area, and attracting the eye up onto the artwork outside. The check-in kiosks are situated here, together with collectionM, citizenM’s retail component offering easy travel accessories, inspiring gifts and (art)books. The large bar and open kitchen forms the heart of the entire ground floor area. The living room areas offer cozy seating around a fireplace, seating booths, tables to work and small seating corners. On different locations bespoke and purchased artworks have been integrated into the design to inspire people. In the rear the outdoor terrace brings the dynamic life of citizenM outwards to connect to the public realm.
One of the new features of citizenM Tower of London is coffeeM. Close to the entrance, and next to the Tower Hill subway exit (20 mln passengers a year) coffeeM enables guests and locals to get a freshly brewed coffee and pastry from one of the baristas. On one of the walls in coffeeM, the art collection of collectionM is presented, a series of artworks which can be purchased on the website that are part of the collaboration between The Public House of Art and citizenM. The shelves on which the art is presented shows “citizenM says: affordable art from our walls to yours, with collectionM.”
SOCIETYM
At the 7th and 8th floor a series of 8 creating spaces are made: meeting spaces for global citizens to work and play. These creating spaces are fully equipped and will help you to have the perfect meeting or inspiring workshop. The break out space has been seriously upgraded to a rooftop bar, which will turn into a great venue for guests and visitors at night. The double height space is featured with large oak citizenM cabinets and specially designed lanterns. Balconies, comfortable soft seating and a large bar area adjacent to the outside terrace are designed to explore the great view of this location.
GENERAL INFORMATION
citizenM is a Dutch hotel group that opened its first hotel at Schiphol Airport in 2008, followed by Amsterdam City in 2009, citizenM Glasgow in 2010, citizenM London Bankside in 2012 and citizenM Rotterdam, Times Square NY and Paris Charles de Gaulle in 2014 and now Tower of London. citizenM wants to expand by building over 20 additional hotels over the coming years. citizenM London Shoreditch is the next to open in September 2016 soon to be followed by New York Bowery, Paris La Défense and Paris Gare de Lyon. The development of more hotels in Boston, Paris and Seattle are currently in progress. A collaboration with the Hong Kong based Artyzen Hospitality Group will help citizenM expand in Southeast Asia in the years to come, starting with citizenM Shanghai and citizenM Taipei to open in 2017.
concrete co-created the concept of citizenM as of the earliest beginnings in 2005 as a holistic plan, which has set the boundaries for every creative process in all disciplines involved. As for the citizenM Tower of London project, concrete itself is responsible for the concept design of the architecture and the interior design of all public areas and guestrooms.
The philosophy
“To all travellers long and short haul.
To the weary, the wise and the bleary eyed.
To the suits, weekenders, fashion baggers and affair-havers.
To the explorers, adventurers and dreamers.
To all locals of the world from Amsterdam, Boston and Cairo to Zagreb.
To all who travel the world with wide eyes and big hearts.
To all who are independent yet united in a desire for positive travelling.
To those who are smarter than a dolphin with a university degree and
realise you can have luxury for not too much cash.
To those who need a good bed, a cold drink and big fluffy towels.
To all who are mobile citizens of the world.
Citizen M welcomes you all.”
