Threadneedles banks on customers

VETERAN hotelier Peter Tyrie is hoping to give Sir Terence Conran's Great Eastern Hotel a run for its money when his new luxury property opens next month in the old Midland Bank City headquarters.

Tyrie has spent three years and £19m turning the bank - dating from 1856 - on Threadneedle Street into a modern boutique hotel. Much of the original flavour of the building remains. The cashiers' counter has been turned into a modern bar on the ground floor while the interior from the old banking hall has been incorporated into the bedrooms.

Just a stone's throw from the Great Eastern, Threadneedles is aimed at the same corporate catchment area of bankers, lawyers and businessmen. Basic doubles start from £265 while a four-bedroom suite is available at £2,370 a night.

With just 70 rooms, Tyrie predicts he will achieve 100% occupancy during the week. But come Friday night, the now bustling streets of the City revert to their former lifeless state. Tyrie said: 'The weekend will be our challenge, but the West End is gravitating towards the City.'

The hotel will offer the latest facilities to tempt the weary warriors of finance to stay in the Square Mile rather than taxi up West - TVs in the bathrooms, modem lines, meeting rooms and a private gym. There will also be a public bar and restaurant, named Bonds.

Threadneedles has been a labour of love for Tyrie, whose career has included running the Mandarin Oriental hotel group out of Hong Kong.

Here he has had to overcome many planning and practical obstacles. It took builders six months to remove the six gold bullion vaults in the basement, fashioned out of three-inch thick steel and copper plates by lock manufacturer Chubb some 150 years ago. The hotel opening has been put back three times as the builders have overrun, although the refit is more or less within budget.

Tyrie's company, The Eton Town House Group, has private backers as well as venture capital finance, and an initial public offering is pencilled in for 2004. In addition to hotels in the London districts of Little Venice and Bloomsbury, he has opened one in Leeds, and one in Edinburgh is scheduled to open its doors in November.