Custom House hotel conversion approved, opening historic Thames landmark to the public
The City of London has approved the Custom House hotel conversion, clearing the way for the Grade I-listed building on Lower Thames Street to reopen as a 179-room riverside hotel and for a new public quayside to replace the on-site car park. The decision was taken by the Planning Applications Sub-Committee. It brings public access to a landmark most of us have only walked past.
Custom House sits between Sugar Quay and Old Billingsgate Market. For years, commuters on the Thames Path have looked up at the long colonnade and locked doors. The plan changes that. Historic interiors, including the Tidewaiters and Long Rooms, will be repaired and opened for community and cultural use. The building’s age and significance are set out in its official listing, which records centuries of river trade.
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Outside, the shift is more pronounced. Security railings and tarmac will give way to about 2,400 square metres of stepped riverside space, roughly a dozen tennis courts, with open access 24/7, 365 days a year, and no private closures. For anyone who pauses here at lunchtime or walks the river with children at weekends, that means room to linger rather than squeeze past.
The scheme folds into the City’s broader visitor push under its Destination City programme, which aims to increase footfall and overnight stays alongside better public realm. The Square Mile counts about 4,800 hotel rooms, with roughly 1,000 in the pipeline; the Custom House hotel conversion adds capacity on one of the Thames’s most visible stretches.
Planning officers called the project a collaborative example of heritage restoration with public benefit. The committee chair, Tom Sleigh, welcomed a “new lease of life” for the building and the simple act of turning a car park back into riverside space.
Work now moves to detailed design and delivery. The measure of success will be obvious: whether the steps fill with office workers, residents and visitors, and whether the doors stay open long after the ribbon is cut. The decision also sits alongside the live debate on major sites across the Square Mile, including the Liverpool Street Station redevelopment, and day-to-day coverage in our City of London section, where planning, transport, finance and culture meet on the river’s edge.
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[Image Credits | City of London Corporation]
