Great Northern hotel first UK management contract for Marugal

The Great Northern hotel at London's King's Cross is the first UK management contract for Marugal Distinctive Hotel Management, which manages eight hotels in Spain and France.

From this month, Marugal will be overseeing soft refurbishments in the public areas of the hotel and the street level bar, as well as creating a new lounge for hotel guests, all of which are due to complete in time for the hotel's reopening in the spring, government restrictions allowing.

The 88-bedroom, Grade II-listed hotel also has a new general manager, Ariane Jessamine-Herd, who was previously general manager at Firmdale's Knightsbridge hotel for three years.

Pablo Carrington, who founded Marugal in 2004, said: "We wanted a property that was not on the beaten track, but more in a part of London that the locals go to and love, like our hotel Urso in Madrid, for example. King's Cross is a fascinating part of the city; after the last few years of significant investment, what I love is that it is now an amazing mix of Victorian splendour, post-industrial chic buildings, stylish restaurants and great shopping. A real one-off destination in fact, which keys in perfectly to our own philosophy of creating one-off hotels."

The building was designed in 1854 by King's Cross station architect Lewis Cubitt and was one of the world's first great railway hotels. In 2013 the property completed a £40m renovation.

Tom Saunders, head of post acquisition at investment company Intriva Capital, which owns the hotel, added: "We are delighted to entrust the future of Great Northern hotel into the hands of Marugal and firmly believe that they will – alongside our dedicated team on-site – turn it into an incredibly successful operation and a true beacon in the area. We are absolutely committed to supporting the hospitality sector in these challenging times."

Jeremy Robson stepped down as a director of the hotel in 2019 and management company Kew Green was appointed to run it after Tyler Mingst and Simon Finn, directors of Intriva Capital Advisors, assumed significant control of the hotel's operating company Aries GNH (Operations) in June the same year. Chef-restaurateur Mark Sargeant, who was appointed as chef-director in 2013, also left the hotel in August 2019.

In 2015 the property became the first hotel in Europe to join the Tribute Portfolio, a brand of independently owned properties launched by Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which was later sold to Marriott International.