A new and unique take on luxury hotels in London


London is offering a new and unique take on luxury with a new generation of hotels.


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To judge from the slew of luxury hotel openings in Europe over the past few months the appetite for an outstanding hotel experience continues unabated. Nevertheless the definition of luxury is becoming less prescriptive. Opulence in itself is no longer a signifier of a premier hotel.

A grand dining room with starched tablecloths and serried ranks of silver cutlery has ceased to be an essential ingredient of a luxury hotel, while in several of our highestprofile hotels, the guest today is as likely to find themselves rubbing shoulders with the locals as being confined to the sight and sounds of fellow hotel guests. Some hotels have cinemas, others fumoirs with breath-taking arrays of expensive brandies, and some of course have large, traditional ballrooms. Some luxury hotels have fewer than 10 guest rooms; others have more than 200.

Meanwhile, London is also enjoying a flurry of luxury hotel openings. Among these, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts has returned, taking up residence with magnificent aplomb in the Belle Epoque building that was once the Pearl Assurance headquarters in High Holborn. Once again, sensitive restoration by expert craftsmen is combined with sense of place in a lavish and sophisticated design by Tony Chi Associates, complemented by Martin Brudnizki's design of the cosy Scarfes Bar - where the eponymous caricaturist's work converts the marble walls into a living canvas - as well as the vibrant Holborn Dining Room next door.

The Rosewood Hotel, in High Holborn, London. The Bronze Gallery at the building’s entrance. Photo Credit: Rosewood Hotel
The Rosewood Hotel, in High Holborn, London. The Bronze Gallery at the building's entrance. Photo Credit: Rosewood Hotel

'Rosewood London encompasses an element of surprise in its design that gives this landmark building, steeped in and surrounded by history, the new lease of life it deserves,' says Matthis Roeke, managing director, Rosewood London.

Tony Chi brings his signature style to the hotel, combining a rich mix of materials including lacquer, textured wood veneers, prismatic mirrors and verre églomisé. The entrance to the building glows with its burnished 'Bronze Gallery' along the length of the facade, public areas are engaging with their often quirky artwork, delightful details and well-stocked bookshelves, and the 262 guest rooms and 44 suites convey the air of stylish London residences.

A bedroom in the new-build Ham Yard Hotel, in a mélange of colour and pattern Photo Credit: Firmdale Hotels
A bedroom in the new-build Ham Yard Hotel, in a mélange of colour and pattern. Photo Credit: Firmdale Hotels

A stone's throw away, but in a very different district of London, the new-build Ham Yard Hotel has also grasped its location and with all the gusto and eclectic imagination we have come to expect from Firmdale Hotels. The key for award-winning Kit Kemp, design director of Firmdale Hotels, was to embrace the bustling, exciting central London location in the heart of Soho. She has absorbed this energy and vitality into spaces that buzz with her distinctive use of vibrant colour, pattern, texture and unexpected detail that inspire the imagination and a sense of adventure.

As with all Kemp's hotels, there is a handcrafted, custom-designed feel to the interiors at Ham Yard Hotel - unique ribbed glass and alabaster chandeliers, for example, a neon silk thread installation hanging above the reception desk, bespoke rugs and framed fabrics. Above all, it's the way Kit Kemp mixes things together that makes her interiors sing. She has used many of her own designs, including fabrics and wallpapers, while her ongoing relationships with artists is clear to see, both inside and out where a contemporary bronze sculpture by Tony Cragg, called Group, creates a striking focal point for guests and locals in the public courtyard provided by the hotel. 'There are a lot of historical statues and monuments in London, yet very little public contemporary sculpture - we wanted to celebrate a British artist, and to us Tony Cragg is the ultimate renaissance man. We hope that long after we have gone, Tony's sculpture will still be here,' says Kemp.

Tony Cragg’s bronze sculpture Group sits outside in a public square provided by the Ham Yard Hotel Photo Credit: Firmdale Hotels
Tony Cragg's bronze sculpture Group sits outside in a public square provided by the Ham Yard Hotel Photo Credit: Firmdale Hotels

Comfort is always key in a Firmdale bedroom - large, elegant headboards in exciting prints provide a great contrast to beds dressed in crisp white linen, teamed with full-length curtains, shutters, sofas, chairs and rugs in a mélange of colour and pattern. Walls are fabric-covered to create another layer of warmth and tactility, many of the rooms drawing on the green of the oak trees outside. Keen attention to detail makes each room a pleasure to stay in.

'I always try to make it comfortable to watch the television from the bed or an easy chair, there is always a good reading light, a really good desk that you can work at and plug in what you need to, and at the end of the bed a footstool to put on your shoes. I want people to feel good when they stay with us,' comments Kemp.

Extraordinary details catch the eye at every turn, many of which have been collected on Kit Kemp's travels. 'I saw the driftwood crocodiles, now hanging on the "discotheque" wall downstairs, and I just knew we had to find somewhere to use them. They were completely bonkers, but perfect because many years ago I used to go to a place called The Croc, so I thought "fantastic, we're going to create a new Croc Bar. That was one of those moments when an idea really comes together.'

In the Firmdale spirit of expect-the-unexpected, there is a bowling alley which, together with the adjacent Dive Bar, has been given a vivid rock'n'roll kick with neon signs, including a diving Jantzen swimmer, a specially commissioned 10m-high orange squeezer, Fifties' bowling alley imported from Texas, two oversized Howard Hodgkin paintings and a collection of retro bowling shoes. Zinctopped bars, wing chairs covered in brightly coloured wools, and a baby grand piano complete the party picture.

Being playful is always at the heart of how Kit Kemp designs. 'No room is perfect, if you had a perfect room you'd just paint it white and leave it, but being in the centre of London and being so close to other buildings, it is always important to let in as much light as possible and to deceive the eye when there are trickier proportions,' she says. And her ultimate aim when designing a room? 'It should feel as if it's completely there for everybody to enjoy, and it should bring the child out in everyone, piquing their curiosity so that it makes them want to slide on all the floors and go exploring.'

An Antony Gormley sitting figure creates ROOM at the Beaumont Hotel
An Antony Gormley sitting figure creates ROOM at the Beaumont Hotel

Kit Kemp is not the only hotel designer in London who is using sculpture outdoors to engage the public with her hotel. In June, the new Beaumont Hotel, operated by restaurateurs Jeremy King and Chris Corbin, unveiled last month its own contribution to the city's streetscape. Created by Antony Gormley, ROOM takes the concept of public art to the next level by being an inhabitable sculpture on the facade of the hotel, both a monumental figural sculpture and an architectural extension. The interior, which is a dark, fumed-oak-clad bedroom in a one-bedroom suite, accessed up seven steps through a black curtain from a strongly contrasting, pure white marble bathroom, is just as important as its exterior: a giant crouching cuboid figure based on the artist's body. At night, ROOM can be totally 'shut down' with absolutely no intrusion of light or sound.

'ROOM contrasts a visible exterior of a body formed from large rectangular masses with an inner experience,' says Antony Gormley. 'The interior of ROOM is only 4m square but 10m high: intimate at body level, but open above. The idea was to reveal this slowly. At night, the shutters allow total enclosure and provide total blackout. The very subliminal levels of light allowed me to sculpt darkness itself. My ambition for this work is that it should confront the monumental with the most personal, intimate experience.'

The Beaumont's architect was the ReardonSmith practice, which together with Corbin and King, who embedded the notion of art as integral to the architecture in their original winning bid for the conversion of the former Avis Rent-A-Car garage in Mayfair to the hotel. Patrick Reardon, executive chairman of ReardonSmith explains: 'The idea of a hotel giving something to its local community beyond its four walls, whether that is public art, or a street-level terrace or a public garden, has come of age. It is a compelling idea because it achieves a greater sense of connection between hotel and local people, and it helps to anchor the hotel in its location.'








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