Firmdale Hotels

For those of you spending time with me recently you would have noticed my sudden interest with Firmdale Hotels. I have not yet finalized a career path but muse with jewels, pattern making, styling, magazine editing, painting, tapestries, accessories and most recently the interest in Kit Kemps interior design.

"Hotels should be living things not stuffy institutions" which I quote from the website of Tim and Kit Kemp, owners of Firmdale Hotels. There are seven stylish ‘boutique’ hotels in London and one in New York, The Crosby which I went to the day my exams ended back in May for a delicious lunch with my mum…couldn’t have been more perfect.

The husband-and-wife team met while Kit was working in an architects’ office in London. She and Tim, who had been working in the property sector, went on to develop a string of small hotels in west London offering student accommodation.

They co-founded Firmdale Hotel group in 1985, with the opening of Dorset Square hotel. Two of the group’s London hotels – Number 16 in South Kensington and the Knightsbridge hotel – are chic B&Bs, while the remaining properties all have in-house destination restaurants or bars. Three of the properties also include state-of-the-art cinemas.

Tim is chairman and takes on the role of property developer and number cruncher. Kit is the group’s design director and has impeccable taste. The kind I like…not too ‘matchy- matchy’. Her color choice and pattern mix work with vibrancy and electricity

A self-taught designer, she rebuilds and designs the properties from scratch.

The UK portfolio comprises The Soho Hotel, Charlotte Street Hotel, Covent Garden Hotel and Haymarket Hotel, the Knightsbridge Hotel and Number Sixteen - all in central London.

Tim and Kit Kemp