A structural defect ended Bespoke’s continuity model

News Analysis

The management change now under way closes the arrangement Grosvenor created when it appointed Bespoke. In April 2015, the estate put Bespoke on a long leasehold at the 80-bedroom hotel. Jonathan Slater’s retirement ended a tenure of more than 30 years, making this the last comparable reset in the property’s management. Bespoke’s stated task was to preserve service while adding its operating and marketing network, a brief built for continuity.

That continuity brief also framed the smaller capital work that followed. In January 2018, the hotel closed La Brasserie for four weeks. The hotel directed £350,000 into the restaurant and champagne bar, keeping the intervention contained within one trading area. The contrast explains the present transfer: Martin is assuming an asset-level problem outside the old management brief. The operating relationship has ended at the point the building itself requires intervention.

The break followed one final attempt at managerial continuity. Bespoke appointed Neil Butler as hotel manager in June 2024, citing his experience of historic city-centre hotels. By June 2026, Butler had resigned after RAAC was found in several conference rooms. Grosvenor said Bespoke had decided to cease operating the hotel following its summer closure, leaving the owner to secure its long-term future.