Good advice should always be heeded. Six years ago, former Cabinet Minister Lord Fowler suggested to Tim Hart that he should consider building on his success at Hambleton Hall by opening a hotel and restaurant in Nottingham. The subsequent opening of Hart's Restaurant in 1997 proved a huge success - and the new hotel, which was completed by Marriott Construction in April, appears set to follow.
Nottingham is a forward-thinking city with a vibrant bar and restaurant sector. It's also a prosperous city - ranked as one of the top three retail centres in the UK with two million regular shoppers. So it's perhaps surprising that The Lace Market Hotel was the only designer accommodation in town. Until now.
Hart's Hotel is the latest addition to Tim and Stefa Hart's Hart Hambleton group, which owns Hart's Restaurant and the Hambleton Hall country house hotel overlooking Rutland Water, which is rated in the AA's top ten UK hotels.
Located a five-minute walk from the city centre, the Hart's site was formerly the city's General Hospital and stands amid Georgian and Victorian town houses on the site of the ramparts of Nottingham's famous medieval castle.
"When we arrived in 1997, the six-acre site vacated earlier by the General Hospital was derelict and the majority of the buildings left by the hospital were still empty or demolished," recalls Tim Hart. "Now the whole area is buzzing and we hope that the hotel, with its new Park Bar, will be become part of the local neighbourhood, as well as a first choice for business tourists and other visitors to the city."
Tim is aware he is playing a part in the area's regeneration and the hotel and restaurant now find themselves at the centre of a growing residential neighbourhood between The Park and the banking quarter of Nottingham. "The change has been remarkable. Since we opened the restaurant, two large hospital buildings have been converted into apartments and Crosby Homes is building or has already completed some 130 apartments in new buildings on the old hospital site."
Tim set out to create a small, distinctive hotel that didn't sacrifice comfort for modernity. He gave four-time RIBA Award-winning local architect Julian Marsh a specific brief: "I wanted generous ceiling heights, harmonious proportions in the rooms, and really good ventilation which is not mechanical - so there are masses of windows you can open."
The new 32-bedroomed hotel has brought a new dimension to hotel design in Nottingham. With a curved brasserie (The Park Bar) forming a gateway to the building, the hotel has been designed in two parts, with the majority of the 30 bedrooms and two suites enjoying fine views across west Nottingham.
"I felt that you have to create an illusion in a hotel room that the guest is the first person to have ever slept there," explains Tim. "There was a need for a new kind of hotel; a hotel of charm which is relatively small, offers exceptional food but provides an individual atmosphere where guests do not feel like a number. When the perfect site came up right next to the restaurant it seemed to me to be a perfect fit."
Julian Marsh was conscious that the new hotel would be built on the exact line of the original Nottingham Castle wall. "The building is really about trying to heal the site and to straddle the gap between the Georgian terraces on Park Terrace, the Grade I listed gatehouse and the new apartments which are being built on the General Hospital site," he says.
The interior decoration was left in the capable hands of Stefa Hart. Contemporary art is a key feature of the principal rooms at Hart's Hotel with a collection of abstract pictures painted by Stefa's father, Vladimir Daskaloff who studied at the Dusseldorf Baushaus where Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky were members of the teaching staff.
"Although I'm a great believer in 'style' it must be justified by the content," reveals Stefa. "Hart's demands simplicity; painted walls, muted colours, simple curtains, linear furniture, cool, calm and efficiency. This is a modern classic hotel that I hope will still look good in 100 years. I am not only a decorator, but also a hotelier - so I am dedicated to making a hotel work not only visually but in terms of welcome and comfort for the client."
Divisional general manager Rupert Elliott manages Hart's 45-strong team. His pedigree includes management training with the Savoy Group and a period spent as deputy head of the Food Department for the Royal Household at Buckingham Palace. "People obviously have high expectations with the name of Hart being associated with the hotel, and we aim to exceed these expectations. Tim Hart made his mark on Hambleton Hall by making it feel like home because of his and Stefa's hospitality. It's all to do with the personal touches and treating every guest as an individual rather than a room number."
All bedrooms have Bose radio/CD players and wide screen televisions. The suites include video players and surround sound systems. All rooms have laptop/mobile phone charging facilities.
The bedrooms include furniture by French designer Philippe Hurel, wool carpets in a tufted two-tone stripe made by Gaskell Carpets in Lancashire to Stefa's own design, beds by Beds RZZZZ of Hemel Hempstead, and bed linen (goosedown pillows and duvets in Egyptian jacquard cotton linen) supplied by Delbanco & Meyer, London. Summer vents provide added circulation of fresh air.
The compact bathrooms include a bath by Kaldewei featuring solid brass taps with a chrome finish from Sirrus of Birmingham. The floor and wall tiles were Pietra Dura natural by Domus. All the bathrooms have Brot magnifying mirrors with lights, and toiletries supplied by The White Company.
Lighting is provided by MLE desk lamps with concealed modem and plug sockets, and bedside lights by Pour la Galerie.
Other facilities of note at the hotel are the small exercise room, residents' garden and private car park.
According to Tim Hart, small hotels should be able to make a virtue of guest recognition and personal touches to which only the most luxurious and expensive large establishments might otherwise aspire. "Nottingham can look forward to a new interpretation of what it means to be a boutique hotel," he claims. "For hotel watchers nationally, Hart's represents a new and fascinating turn in the boutique movement."