Rich List 2017
88 • thesundaytimes.co.uk/richlistKit
Tim and I met through Leszek
Nowicki, a wonderful Polish
architect, when we were both
going out with other people. Tim
was one of Leszek’s clients and
I was a friend of his. When Leszek
got married to a woman called Alex
Galitzine, he invited Tim and me
and put us next to each other at
dinner. He was playing cupid. It
worked. We got married in 1983.
I’m the design director of
Firmdale Hotels, helped by our
daughters, while Tim works on
property deals as chairman and
managing director. We like hotels
to be warm and unintimidating. I’m
the shyest person — I won’t go into
an art gallery if I think I’m going to
feel like a worm. We don’t like that
clubby feel that has become very
commonplace in hotels — where
you think you have to be a member
to enter. We’ve always stayed away
from the velvet rope. Our guests
come from different walks of life.
We think that’s really important.
Tim and I have separate offices
now, but it wasn’t always that way.
I started working from home,
then I moved into a cupboard in
Tim’s office. Now I’ve taken over
a whole building in South
Kensington. Tim has another office
in Golden Square.
We are quite independent at
work and that suits us well.
When we opened our first hotels,Tim and Kit Kemp are Britain’s most successful boutique hoteliers.
Tim, 71, buys the properties while his wife, Kit, 60, designs them.
They have just opened their second hotel in Manhattan, the Whitby,
taking their collection of hotels in London and New York to 10.
Interviews by John Arlidge. Photograph by David Vintiner
Relative
Va l u e s
we hardly had time to speak to
one another for several months at
a time.
Our worst row was over the
placement of the Fernando Botero
cat sculpture in the Soho hotel
in London. Since it’s so big — it’s
10ft tall — the building was built
around it. I always like things
straight on, but Tim wanted it at
an angle, so that as you’re coming
down the steps, the cat is smiling
at you. We had a big falling-out.
We had to get an art person in, who
agreed with Tim. I was furious.
We like colour. We like fabrics.
We make our own. The end result
is design that reflects who we are.
You can’t design for other people
— you really just do it for yourself
and hope that somebody else will
like it. Look at the bar at the
Whitby. There are all these baskets
over the bar: a flower basket, one
for the apple harvest in Kent ...
I thought: “Oh gosh, it might look
a bit hokey.” But I really like it.
We seek out wonderful artists
and craftsmen who are young
and just emerging. It means thatthere is always creativity and
movement.
Some people may feel
uncomfortable in our hotels
because they do not conform to
their ideas of a gentlemen’s club
or an English country house. But
other people ask lots of questions
and are very interested in the
fabrics and the artists.
We’re handing over the Whitby
now. When I come in, I’m watching
how people use their space. It’s not
mine any more. And that’s the love
of it. I’m curious about what we can
do and how people will react.Tim
We take risks in property and
hotels. Everything is on the line
when we open somewhere new.
The Soho hotel used to be an NCP
car park. The Whitby cost $120m
(£99m) and should have opened
last year. Things happen.
The risk is more than simply
financial. We try to break out of our
comfort zone, to do new things, in
every project. You have to because
the customer has become so
sophisticated and there is a lot of
competition. You need to be
constantly ahead. Even once a
hotel is up and running, you have
to rejig it, to keep it right and fresh.
That’s the driving force of our
business. It’s never boring.
One thing that makes us
different from other hoteliers is
that we like to own the buildings
and do everything ourselves. We do
all the planning and the design and
we have our own teams of buildersMATERIAL WHIRL
Tim and Kit Kemp at
their Ham Yard hotel
in Soho and, left, at
the Charlotte Street
hotel in 1999. “We
design for ourselves
and hope other
people like it”275= £450m £50m t
TIM AND KIT KEMP
Hotels