Tim and Kit Kemp's purpose-built Firmdale flagship — 91 individually designed rooms and 24 apartments around a private courtyard with a Tony Cragg sculpture and 13 boutiques, a 188-seat theatre, and the four-lane 1950s bowling alley shipped over from Bowlmor in Iowa.
"The most playful five-star in central London — a hidden Soho courtyard, a private theatre, a real bowling alley, and Kit Kemp's pattern-on-pattern interiors that nobody else in the world is doing at this scale."
Ham Yard Hotel is the eighth Firmdale property and the first that Tim and Kit Kemp built from the ground up. The Kemps acquired the Ham Yard site — a derelict 1930s car park behind Piccadilly Circus that had been earmarked for redevelopment for over twenty years — in 2010, demolished what remained, and opened the hotel in June 2014 after a four-year build. The result is a small purpose-built urban village: a private cobbled courtyard with a Tony Cragg bronze; thirteen independent boutiques (Anya Hindmarch, Cire Trudon, Sandro and others) at street level; a 188-seat fully working theatre underground; the only 1950s American four-lane Bowlmor bowling alley in Britain, dismantled and shipped from Iowa; a rooftop kitchen garden with bee hives; and the only piece of new-build hotel architecture in London where the entire envelope was designed around the interior decoration first.
The 91 rooms (and 24 apartments above) are Kit Kemp's most fully realised interior to date — every room individually designed, every fabric pattern, every wallpaper, every commissioned artwork unique to its room. The signature is pattern-on-pattern in the Bloomsbury vein: a stripe headboard against a botanical wall against a printed cotton cushion against a hand-loomed throw, all calibrated to read together. Standard category rooms run from 28 square metres; Junior Suites and Dome Suites occupy the upper-floor corners with private terraces over Soho rooftops; the four duplex Apartments at the top of the building have their own kitchens and Soho-rooftop terraces (the Penthouse Loft is the largest at 165 square metres). Bathrooms are oversized for central London and finished in marble.
Dining is the Soho-as-Soho-should-be operation. The Dining Room overlooks the courtyard with windows that open onto the cobbles in summer; the menu is contemporary British (the Sunday roast is the best on this side of Piccadilly Circus). The Bar is the all-day social room — the cocktail list runs deep. The 1950s Bowling Alley is fully bookable for parties and operates as a late-night room. Dive Bar is the late underground den under the theatre. Above all of it, the Croquet Lawn — a 96-square-metre rooftop garden — is the place for summer drinks. The 188-seat theatre runs film screenings (the hotel hosts screenings during the BFI London Film Festival every October), live music and private events.
Position is the hidden Soho proposition — the address is a quiet courtyard between Great Windmill Street and Archer Street, three minutes from Piccadilly Circus Tube, two from the Theatreland district, four from Mayfair's southern edge. The hotel is the natural answer for Soho-anchored stays where the West End theatre and restaurant scene is the point of the trip and the room itself needs to be a visual event. For bachelorette parties booking the bowling alley, family stays where the kids book the cinema, or anniversaries built around a Royal Opera House or Old Vic ticket, Ham Yard is the one address in central London where the entertainment is built in.
For a hen weekend or stag where the hotel needs to do the entertainment internally, Ham Yard is the clearest London answer. The Bowling Alley books for 30 to 60 guests; the Croquet Lawn handles the daytime drinks; Dive Bar takes the late-night part of the evening. Two-bedroom Apartments accommodate the bridesmaid party in the same building as the bride.
A West End anniversary stay where a play or opera is the centre of the evening sits well at Ham Yard — the Royal Opera House is a four-minute taxi, the Theatreland district is a five-minute walk. The Dome Suites with their private terraces are the romantic booking; the courtyard's after-theatre return is the moment the hotel earns the room rate.
Family stays where the children are old enough to bowl and want their own connecting space work very well — the two-bedroom Apartments accommodate a family of four with the privacy of a separate sitting room, and the bowling alley + theatre + central Soho location makes the days plan themselves. Connecting rooms can be booked for older teens.
1 Ham Yard
London W1D 7DT
United Kingdom
Piccadilly Circus Tube 3 minutes; Leicester Square Tube 4 minutes; Theatreland 5 minutes; Heathrow 50 minutes by Heathrow Express + taxi.
91 rooms + 24 apartments
Standard rooms from £570/night
Junior Suites from £1,250/night
Two-bedroom apartments from £2,400/night
Penthouse Loft from £6,200/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
Opened June 2014; eighth Firmdale property; Tim & Kit Kemp ownership
Private cobbled courtyard with Tony Cragg sculpture
188-seat theatre and screening room
Original 1950s American 4-lane bowling alley
Croquet Lawn rooftop garden
13 boutiques on the courtyard
Dive Bar & cocktail bar
Spa with 4 treatment rooms
From £570/night. Apartments and the bowling alley are most often the choke points — book three months ahead for any October half-term, BFI London Film Festival fortnight, or December festive period.
Book This Hotel →Andre Balazs's 26-room hideout in a former 1889 fire station, with the most photographed restaurant in Marylebone.
Edwardian Hotels' £400m super-boutique with six restaurants, an underground cinema and a Leicester Square address.
Eighty-one rooms in a 2026-opening art deco hotel, named London Hotel of the Year by The Times.