Starter For Ten

- Stevie King

Designed by celebrated architect Sir Edwin Cooper in the early Twenties, Ten Trinity Square has had more than its share of history in the making moments. Standing tall at the south eastern edge of London’s Square Mile with front line views across the River Thames and Tower Bridge, the building’s classical facade hints at trade links going back to Roman times; the Beaux-Arts architecture and interiors reflecting the confidence of London when it was the world’s largest port and one of the great international centres of trade and finance. Perhaps its finest hour was in 1946, when the property’s Grand Ballroom played host to the inaugural meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Fast forward to 2016, and the neoclassical masterpiece is perhaps undergoing its most ambitious transformation to date. Six months of intense negotiation to secure conditional planning permission followed by five years of painstaking restoration work, and the results are nothing short of palatial; the property sympathetically transformed by Beijing-based developer Reignwood Group into a Four Seasons hotel with 41 fully-serviced residences and a private members club and spa.