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Hotels for an Olympics stay
ME LONDON
336-337 The Strand, London WC2R 1HA.
Tel: 1800-553402 , me-by-melia.com
If you stay here you’ll be one of the first in because it opens in July just before Olympic kick-off (now there’s a building deadline). It’s on the Strand – which runs right fromTrafalger Square to the City of London, and this hotel is at the Holborn/Covent Garden end.
ME London is part of the design-heavy ME by Meliá¡ group (which also has hotels in Barcelona, Madrid, Cancun and Cabo in Mexico) and they’ve kept up the chicometer by drafting in architects Foster + Partners to do the interior and exterior of the hotel which used to be a BBC building and which overlooks Somerset House. The best views will be from the rooftop bar, where you’ll get a 180 degree sweep of downtown London’s skyline.
Rooms: there are 157 rooms and suites, in various sizes and with en suites with rainshowers and, in the larger rooms, double showers and baths. For Olympian style there’s the Suite ME running over two floors in the turret of the building, which opens onto a roof terrace. Doubles are £500 (€606.75) during the Olympics (£340-€412.50 otherwise).
THE HOXTON
81 Great Eastern Street, London EC2A 3HU.
Tel: 0044-2077550-1000, hoxtonhotels.com
The Hoxton is in trendy Shoreditch, once just a no-place space near the City of London and the relentless Old Street roundabout. But now it’s all design studios, ethnic eateries and cool coffee bars, and the White Cube art gallery is just up the road, on Hoxton Square. Indeed, the hotel itself was built on an old car park — vehicles were king around these parts – by Pret a Manger founder Sinclair Beecham.
It has quirky elements and totally sensible policies – the former in its style and the latter in its pricing and offerings. In line with the area, it’s interior has an industrial look, but with cosy edges.
Hoxton sells five rooms a night for £1 (€1.21) but you need to have your finger on the buzzer to get those in its periodic sales – in the last one 500 rooms sold in less than 10 minutes (see the website to be notified of these). This forms part of its low-cost airline way of pricing, with rooms then rising through £59 (€71.60), £79 (€95.90) and up to £249 (€302), which is what doubles and twins will cost during the Olympics.
Once you’re in the door you get an hour of free phone calls (to landlines, and US mobiles, in the UK, US, Australia and most of Europe), and the lobby shop charges supermarket prices. It is close to Liverpool Street railway station and Old Street underground.
Rooms: there are 205 rooms mainly with sandy walls and glossy, dark chocolate en suites with walk-in showers (and Pears soap a classic touch). Three rooms, however, have unique designs, by Project Orange, Suzy Hoodless and Adrian Kilby of The Formation whose brief was a fusion between East London edge and urban lodge warmth. Breakfast – orange juice, banana, granola yoghurt – is hung in a bag on the door, and mineral water and milk is in the room as are tea- and coffee- making paraphernalia.
Prices from £1 (€1.21) a night to £249 (€302) a night.
NUMBER SIXTEEN
16 Sumner Place, London SW7 3EG. Tel: 0044-207589 5232, firmdalehotels.com
Number Sixteen is a boutique hotel in a row of white stucco Victorian townhouses, with a fresh, modern English style interior. One of the two drawing rooms has a zany mix of modern art and furniture and the second sittingroom is a cosy space complete with honesty bar.
The hotel is close to museums in South Kensington, not far from Knightsbridge (Harrods, Harvey Nics et al) and Hyde Park, where the opening party for the Olympics will be held. The hotel itself offers a haven from the active city not least in its conservatory splashed with ethnic art, and the garden.
It is part of the Firmdale group of hotels, which is opening its new Dorset Square Hotel in Marylebone in June, which also has Olympics availability. This Regency townhouse is currently being revamped, again with bold colours and textures, and art from around the world. It is close to Regent’s Park, the chic, cutesy Marylebone High Street and Oxford Street beyond.
Rooms: There are 41 individually designed bedrooms at Number 16. The garden rooms have their own private courtyards with direct access to the garden. Doubles from £185 (€224.50). Dorset Square Hotel will have 38 differently designed rooms, many looking onto a private square that was the first site of Thomas Lord’s cricket ground (the new one is at the other end of Regent’s Park from here). Doubles from £195 (€236.60).