A Room For London Lands On The Queen Elizabeth Hall

TimW
By TimW Last edited 147 months ago
A Room For London Lands On The Queen Elizabeth Hall
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The view from Waterloo Bridge
The view from Waterloo Bridge
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From Hungerford Bridge
From Hungerford Bridge
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The hotly anticipated ship-shaped hotel-pod 'landed' on the South Bank on Thursday. It was winched onto the roof of the Queen Elizabeth Hall where it will perch throughout 2012.

The idea is that 'A Room for London', as it is called, will provide a postmodern sanctuary for reflection during Olympic year (the project is part of the London 2012 Festival). In a one third-two thirds split, the pod will given over to artistic types (10 days a month) and the paying public (20 guests a month). Peeping out over the busy South Bank walkways, the pod will hand guests some pretty fine London views, and with a night's stay starting at £120 apparently, it's pretty good value too.

The intimately sized structure, which looks like something out of a Jules Verne novel but is more inspired by Conrad's The Heart of Darkness, is the result of a collaboration between contemporary art group Art Angel and an organisation founded by everyone's favourite philosopher, Alain de Botton. Living Architecture aims to bring together holiday rentals and idiosyncratic architecture, making the point that cutting edge design is for all.

'A Room for London' is all booked out up to June to 2012. Booking for July to December opens on 19 January 2012. All the info you need is here, including details of a competition to win a night's stay.

All photos by Dean.

Last Updated 17 December 2011