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The Flight From Bootle

THE FLIGHT FROM BOOTLE

Lonely in the Regent Palace,
Sipping her 'Banana Blush',
Lilian lost sight of Alice
In the honey-coloured rush.

Settled down at last from Bootle,
Alice whispered, "Just a min,
While I pop upstairs and rootle
For another safety pin."

Dreamy from the band pavilion
Drops of the 'Immortal Hour'
Fell around the lonely Lilian
Like an ineffectual shower.

Half an hour she sat and waited
In the honey-coloured lounge
Till she with herself debated,
"Time for me to go and scrounge!"

Time enough! or not enough time!
Lilian, you wait in vain;
Alice will not have a rough time,
Nor be quite the same again.

John Betjeman

Regent Palace Poem by Ken Drive

REGENT PALACE

by kendrive ^Pro @ 2007-09-07 – 07:08:29

I don't know how many of you Londoners know the Regent Palace Hotel, just off Piccadilly Circus and on the edge of Soho.

It was built for J Lyons and Co Ltd and opened on May 16, 1915. At that time, it was the largest hotel in Europe with 1028 bedrooms.

Over the years the hotel became rundown and shabby and suffered from the fact that very few of the rooms had ensuite bathroom facilities. A trek down the long corridor was required.

It also had a reputation for being used by 'ladies of the street'.

In recent years it was rated with only 2 stars and accommodation was available from £25 per night.

The Regent Palace closed on the 31st of December 2006, as it had become increasingly uneconomic to operate to the standards required by a 21st century clientele.

At the moment the building is boarded up and bears notices stating that it is permanently closd. It is obviously a valuable redevelopment site.

However, in Betjeman's day the hotel was very busy and popular with tourists who were looking for a cheap stay in the capital.

Such a person was Lilian, who has come down from Bootle in Lancashire (now Merseyside), with her friend Alice, for a little excitement!

Regent Palace History-Demolition

Regent Palace History-Demolition

First Concrete Poured for New Regent St Building

Wednesday, 6 May 2009

Contractors have begun pouring concrete to form the new structure that will replace Regent Street's 94-year-old Regent Palace Hotel.

The hotel is currently being demolished to accommodate the new building, which will feature seven floors of offices, a ground floor of shops and nine residential units. 

The new structure will include 35,000 tonnes of concrete and 5000 tonnes of steel. 

As the demolition and concrete pouring continue above ground, temporary works are also underway at basement level to ensure the building is stabilised as its remaining floors are levelled.

Historic facades and art deco features are being retained as part of the redevelopment.

Stanhope project director Paul Hargreaves said:  "The works are progressing well on site.  The temporary works should be finished in four to six weeks and demolition is scheduled for completion in mid-Summer."

Stanhope is overseeing the redevelopment on behalf of the Crown Estate.

Complex Tunnel Excavation Complete

Wednesday, 6 May 2009

Excavation for a tunnel linking two Regent Street sites formerly occupied by the Regent Palace Hotel and the Café Royal is complete.

The tunnel being built beneath Glasshouse Street will allow goods and materials to be ferried from a new 12,000 sq ft service area being created on the Regent Palace Hotel site to the new luxury hotel replacing the Café Royal.  The creation of this single service yard will free up space for the public realm improvements that are a vital part of the Crown Estate's plans to open up this end of Regent Street.

Now the excavation to 7.5m below road level is complete, work will begin building the tunnel and reinstating a Victorian sewer that had to be demolished as part of the excavation.  Sewage running along the Glasshouse Street sewer was diverted along Air Street during this time.

The excavation has been complicated by unforeseen challenges, primarily the discovery of a large number of unrecorded services below the road.  These included extensive fibre optic cabling, a cast iron pipe from circa 1830 that is likely to have been part of a hydraulic power system used to run lifts, as well as what may have been two old gas mains feeding gas-powered lights in the early 1900s.  The discovery of the extra services forced a redesign of the temporary works needed for the excavation.

Stanhope project director Paul Hargreaves said:  "The services ended up covering 75 percent of the width of the tunnel, posing the design team a considerable challenge in finding a way to install the temporary works without disturbing any of the cables or pipes.  That they were able to come up with a workable solution is a testament to their hard work and resourcefulness."

The reformation of the road above the tunnel is due to be completed by the end of the year (2009).

Stanhope is overseeing the development on behalf of the Crown Estate, while Sir Robert McAlpine is the construction manager.

Construction Cranes Go Up at Regent Palace Hotel Redevelopment Site

Monday, 24 August 2009

The first of four construction tower cranes is now in place on the former Regent Palace Hotel site in London's Regent Street.

The crane was erected over the weekend, signalling the start of building works to create 420,000 sq ft of high quality offices, retail and residential space on the high profile site near Piccadilly Circus.

The demolition of the 1000-bedroom hotel has been ongoing since November and has reached its final phase, with excavation underway on the lower basement level of the old building.

The four corners of the original building that are being protected and retained within the new development form striking markers for passersby looking across the now largely-empty site.

Stanhope is carrying out the redevelopment on behalf of owner The Crown Estate. 

The new mixed-use scheme will contribute to a new identity being forged for Regent Street, as a quality shopping destination with vastly improved public spaces. 

When the scheme is complete a new pedestrianised arcade will link the south-west end of Denman Street to Glasshouse Street, contributing to a new vibrancy in this part of Piccadilly.

Demolition of Regent Palace Hotel Enters Next PhaseR

Demolition of Regent Palace Hotel Enters Next Phase

Tuesday, 28 July 2009

The demolition of the former Regent Palace Hotel to make way for a new mixed-use development has reached ground level.

Since October last year work has been ongoing to take down the 1000-bedroom former hotel on Glasshouse Street, using two tower cranes that sit upon the existing hotel structure and foundations.

Stanhope is overseeing the redevelopment on behalf of owner The Crown Estate.

The building has now been demolished to ground floor level and over the weekend (24-26 July) a large mobile crane was set up to remove the western demolition tower crane.

The junction of Glasshouse and Air Streets was closed to traffic to allow the removal of the crane.

The next phase of works will see demolition move into the basement levels of the hotel.

Gareth Healy, of construction manager Sir Robert McAlpine, said:  "Now that we're down to the ground floor we will be bringing in two 45 tonne pneumatic excavators with hydraulic munchers.  This is like a big dinosaur mouth, it just shears through everything, chews through steel and concrete."

The demolition works are due to be completed in November.  The work has been complicated by the retention of four of the historic facades of the existing building, which have been supported by a brace and closely monitored throughout the works.

The redevelopment will see the hotel replaced by offices, shops and residential. 

In addition to the retained facades, four art-deco restaurants and bars are being completely restored within the basement of the scheme.

Regent Palace Site News

Digging Deep

The excavation for a tunnel to link Regent Street's former Regent Palace Hotel and Café Royal sites held more than a few surprises for contractors.

A 7.5m deep tunnel below Glasshouse Street will allow goods and materials to be ferried between the two sites, currently being redeveloped into offices, shops, a tourist information centre and a luxury hotel.  By servicing both sites, via the tunnel, from a single service yard on the Regent Palace Hotel site, Glasshouse Street will be freed up for the extensive public realm improvements planned by landowner the Crown Estate.

Prior to excavation work beginning Sir Robert McAlpine Technical Services devised a temporary works system that would also support a bridge over the deep trench - permitting construction vehicles to travel along Glasshouse Street whilst work carried on below - and successfully applied for a road closure from Westminster Council.

In late 2008 workers began digging slit trenches to get a glimpse of the services below the road. Having already carried out an electronic scan, as well as reviewing the written records provided by utilities companies, Sir Robert McAlpine was not expecting too many surprises.

But the 1.5m deep trenches revealed a large number of additional pipes and cables, clashing with the proposed positioning of seven of eight king posts.  As well as extensive unrecorded fibre optic cabling, two mystery services had the contractors scratching their heads.  Sir Robert McAlpine's Gareth Healy says:  "We believe two were old gas mains that fed gas-powered street lights in the early 1900s.  Plus, there was a 1.5 inch thick cast iron pipe from around 1871 that we're pretty sure was used as part of the old London hydraulic power system.  I actually found that one on Google Images, by typing in ‘cast iron pipe with oval joints'.  An item came up about the way the Victorians had used these high pressure pipes to pipe water to power lifts in buildings."  During the late 1800s, water power was transmitted through a vast network of hydraulic mains to thousands of hotels, shops, offices, mansion blocks, docks and factories.

The discovery forced a major redesign.  "Because of the extent of the services, there was very little flexibility in where the king posts could be located," Healy says.  After a concentrated effort from the site team and SRM's technical services department, the king posts were successfully moved into new positions, with one fitting into such a tight gap the post had to be reduced in size and reinforced to compensate.

But the installation of beams between the king posts to hang the utility services off while excavation carried on below revealed a second clash, this time with the gas main supplying the Café Royal.  Works were delayed while the team waited for the Café Royal to move out before applying to disconnect the offending main.  "Normally to get a gas main disconnected takes four to six weeks,"Healy says.  "We did it in 16 days.  Then we started excavation."

The work continued without incident, until the diggers revealed an old Victorian sewer.  Helpfully, this obstacle was clearly marked on plans and the contractors were prepared, having diverted the sewer prior to any work beginning.  After breaking through the top to check the diversion had been successful, the brick sewer was demolished.  "Quite fortunately no services were in the sewer, or we would have been in a right pickle," Healy says.  It has become common for utilities companies to use the additional space in the huge Victorian sewers - typically large enough for a person to stand in - to locate their wires and cables.

"Then we exposed the underside of the Café Royal retaining wall," Healy recalls.  "Once again, we weren't fully aware this was there as we didn't have their construction drawings.  This brought a major design change to the process."  The design team were sent back to the drawing board once more to create an underpinning system to support the café building.  Old brick walls, the sides of long-forgotten vaults underneath the Regent Palace Hotel, were also discovered, and had to be hammered out.

Having overcome a considerable number of unforeseen obstacles, the complex excavation was completed in May.

Stanhope development director Paul Hargreaves says:  "The tunnel excavation has been hugely challenging, and the fact the team has been able to come up with a workable solution is a real testament to their hard work and resourcefulness."