{"id":4486,"date":"2018-04-03T09:02:27","date_gmt":"2018-04-03T09:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"Though it has only been around for about a year, the Ned is already the heart of the City<\/strong>. Okay, the prestigious building itself may have been around for a wee bit longer \u2013 say, a Century \u2013 but ever since it\u2019s housing one of the City\u2019s mo"},"modified":"2018-03-28T11:42:06","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T11:42:06","slug":"the-history-of-the-ned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onecity.london\/unexpected\/the-history-of-the-ned\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of the Ned"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though it has only been around for about a year, the Ned is already the heart of the City<\/strong>. Okay, the prestigious building itself may have been around for a wee bit longer \u2013 say, a Century \u2013 but ever since it\u2019s housing one of the City\u2019s most talked about hotels it has become even more of a centrepiece<\/strong>. The prestigious grade 1 building (meaning that it\u2019s listed with exceptional interest) is now as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside, and we just can\u2019t stop thinking about spending the night<\/strong> in one of those dreamy rooms.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve already written a full guide to the hotel\u2019s range of restaurants<\/strong> and bars here<\/a>, but the building\u2019s history deserves attention too. Let\u2019s take a look.<\/p>\n

\"the<\/p>\n

Sir Edwin Lutyens<\/strong><\/p>\n

The iconic estate was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in the early 1920\u2019s and originally built to house the Midland Bank headquarters. Lutyens is particularly known for playing a key role in the development of New Delhi<\/strong> – so much so even, that the Indian city is often referred to as Lutyens\u2019 Delhi. His architectural style is known for its adaptability, clearly visible in the way in which he combined classical architecture with Indian influences<\/strong> in his iconic New Delhi work.<\/p>\n

For the Midland Bank, Lutyens designed exterior elevations, the ground floor banking hall, basement safe deposit area, directors\u2019 and boardroom floors and all staircases. Interestingly, he designed the building to look its best from the side, instead of frontally. While colleagues Gotch and Saunders worked on the building\u2019s remaining areas (predominantly its interior), Lutyens himself returned for the extension in 1935.<\/p>\n

\"the<\/p>\n

The heart of the financial centre<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the best part of the 20th<\/sup> Century, the Midland Bank was one of the UK\u2019s largest banks, rightly deserving to be housed in one of the City\u2019s most prominent buildings. Including a theatre as well as an extraordinary walk-in vault that was even featured in James Bond film Goldfinger<\/strong>, the building perfectly reflected the bank\u2019s prestigious position. It was taken over by HSBC in 1992, however, leaving the building to be tenantless for almost a decade. That is, until Nick Jones, founder of Soho House & Co, viewed the building in 2012 and fell in love<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In collaboration with New York hotel developer Sydell Group, Jones took on the challenge of converting the gigantic bank into a luxury (six star!) hotel. Although most of its original interior was torn out during this process, several of its typical bank features have been retained<\/strong>. The former banking hall, for example, now functions as the reception area in which 30\u2019s art deco features are still evident. Paying homage to the building\u2019s creator, Lutyens granddaughter was asked to replicate the architect\u2019s clock and supply suitable light fittings.<\/p>\n

\"the<\/p>\n

Alongside the many preserved historical elements you\u2019ll find in the Ned, the hotel\u2019s overall look exudes modernity and cosiness. Its luxurious Parisian feeling<\/strong> invites to spending long nights at the bar sipping an old-fashioned or martini, and the bedrooms, well \u2026 just have a little look here. So next time you pass Poultry Street in the City, make sure to have at least a little peek inside this gorgeous hotel: can you spot the history?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though it has only been around for about a year, the Ned is already the heart of the City. Okay, the prestigious building itself may have been around for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onecity.london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4486"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onecity.london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onecity.london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onecity.london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onecity.london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4486"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/onecity.london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4491,"href":"https:\/\/onecity.london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4486\/revisions\/4491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onecity.london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onecity.london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onecity.london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}