How Gabriel Chipperfield saved a London street
What began as a hotel redevelopment became a full-blown neighbourhood revival, reimaginging a Bayswater stretch with Spanish-style dining, a stylish florist and a liveable approach to the high street.
Gabriel Chipperfield feels more at home running his property firm, Wendover Partners, than in the world of hospitality. But when the son of Pritzker prize-winning architect David took over the development of London’s Lancaster Gate Hotel in 2022 and began transforming it into flats, he felt that the surrounding area could also do with some help. “Bayswater is well located but underappreciated,” says Chipperfield. “It has some of London’s best period architecture.”
That’s why he started Foreign Exchange News, a bureau de change-cum-newsagent and café. “The money traders didn’t want to move out so we fused the concepts,” he says. Sol’s, a Spanish wine bar and deli, soon followed. When Monocle visits, diners are feasting on padrón peppers and croquetas, and clinking glasses of albariño. “A local resident told us that she had taken her house off the market since we opened Sol’s,” says Chipperfield, who has now taken over the premises next door to create Sol’s Sister, a florist and events space.
“We have had requests to create comparable ‘concepts’ in New York, Doha, Adelaide and Miami,” says the property developer of the now-humming high street. “But what we have achieved in Bayswater wasn’t about creating something that’s replicable.” Instead, he wants to revive the liveable neighbourhood where he grew up. “We should probably create a dry cleaner’s or a convenience shop next.”
sols.london; solssister.com
