Whitbread has received planning approval to open one of its largest Hub by Premier Inn hotels near London’s South Bank.
The budget hotel group has been granted permission to convert Dorset House, a 90,000 sq ft former office building on Stamford Street in Southwark, into a 421-room hotel.
Compact bedrooms will be created within the existing nine-storey office building, with the basement level converted into a food and beverage space.
The hotel will be the first Hub by Premier Inn to open south of the River Thames and will be located within a 10-minute walk of Waterloo Station and the Royal Festival Hall.
Construction is expected to begin in the second half of 2026, with the hotel targeted to open in summer 2028.
This year, Whitbread has acquired four office sites earmarked for hotel development, including Victory House in Holborn. Collectively, the projects will add more than 1,000 rooms to the group’s portfolio, representing an investment of £100m.
Jonathan Langdon, senior acquisition manager for Whitbread, said: “The buildings we have acquired in 2025 bring four outstanding hotel locations into our secured pipeline in places where we are either not yet represented or are responding to strong, year-round demand from our customers.”
The budget Hub by Premier Inn concept was launched in Covent Garden in 2014 and has since grown to 18 hotels across London and Edinburgh.
Whitbread, which owns around 850 hotels in the UK, said it expects its business rates bill to increase by £40m–£50m in the next financial year following changes announced in the Budget.
The company said it plans to reduce costs by around £60m to offset the impact.
