The buzz about the new ME by Meliá Hotel in Covent Garden is all about its Foster + Partners design…..but with a destination hotel like this, the devil is in the detail. No matter how striking and inventive the design concept, if the finishing touches don’t meet the same stringent standards the whole effect could be ruined. It’s for that reason that wiring accessories specialist, The Wandsworth Group, was brought on board to provide design-led sockets and switches that would both carry through the design concept and maintain the exacting quality standards specified throughout the hotel. A company with a 108-year track record that still manufactures in the UK, The Wandsworth Group supplies everything from the most traditional to the most contemporary wiring accessories and many installations have stood the test for time for 50 years or more.
Explains Andy Howe, head of sales at The Wandsworth Group, “ME by Melia London is the first UK hotel to be created by the brand and aims to offer a ‘personality-led’ experience in one of the world’s ‘leading capitals of culture and cool’. The wiring accessories are often over-looked as a commodity requirement but here incorporating design-led wiring accessories into the interior scheme in order to maintain the ultra-stylish look was all part of the attention to detail that is obvious throughout.”
The Wandsworth Group has provided wiring accessories from the company’s grid-mounted Series 3 range, ensuring clean lines and an elegant finish with screw-less fittings. White accessories have been selected for use on the white leather padded wall in each room, with matching black accessories used to complement the black wall opposite. For the entrance to the bathroom area, The Wandsworth Group has created bespoke chrome plates to match the chrome door surround and complement the white and black accessories.
Andy adds: “This is not an off-the-shelf hotel so an off-the-shelf approach to specifying the wiring accessories would not have been appropriate. Our UK manufacturing base allows us to design and manufacture bespoke ‘specials’ quickly and with the same quality guarantees that customers can expect across the range: that’s the kind of finishing touch that turns a great hotel into a stylish destination.”
