Index / Art Hotels

Art Hotels

Three hotels in London and New York where the walls, the furniture and the odd objects on the mantel matter as much as the bed.

3 entries
  • No. 01Fitzrovia, London, England

    The Mandrake

    Step in off Newman Street and the light drops. The Mandrake opened in 2019 with dark, theatrical interiors and an art collection that leans toward the strange: ritual objects, surreal pieces, works that ask for a second look.

    At the heart of the building is an open courtyard, hung with trailing greenery, with a bar beneath it. Rooms carry the same mood in deep colours and heavy fabrics. Up top there is a roof terrace. This is a hotel for people who like their surroundings to have opinions.

    • Fitzrovia
    • Opened 2019
    • Courtyard bar
    • Roof terrace
  • No. 02SoHo, New York, United States

    Crosby Street Hotel

    Kit Kemp designed the interiors, and you notice within seconds. Crosby Street Hotel belongs to London's Firmdale group and opened in SoHo in 2009, in a new building with tall, warehouse-style windows.

    Colour does most of the talking. Bold textiles, clashing patterns and a large collection of art and sculpture run from the public rooms into the bedrooms, and no two rooms are dressed quite alike. Downstairs there is a private screening room. Out back, a small garden.

    • SoHo
    • Kit Kemp interiors
    • Screening room
    • Firmdale Hotels
  • No. 03Clerkenwell, London, England

    The Zetter Townhouse Clerkenwell

    A Georgian townhouse on St John's Square holds this one. It is small, with only a handful of rooms, and furnished as though a well-travelled and slightly eccentric relative had lived here for decades and never thrown anything away.

    Portraits crowd the walls. Curios, taxidermy and antique furniture fill the ground-floor cocktail lounge, where the drinks get as much attention as the decor. Bedrooms follow the same idea at a quieter pitch. Its larger sister, The Zetter, is a few steps away.

    • Georgian townhouse
    • St John's Square
    • Cocktail lounge
    • Few rooms