Thistle Hotels has confirmed it is in talks to lease the closed Cumberland Hotel in the capital.

The Cumberland, which is in the midst of a £92 million refurbishment, is the last of the 11 Le Meridien hotels owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland to find a new operator after being taken back by the bank. It is scheduled to re-open in October.

Thistle Hotels is the largest operator in London and recently announced its intention to offload seven hotels through a sale-and-manage back deal. The six London and one Edinburgh properties are valued at around £200m.