I have been travelling to London for work (mainly) a few times a year for about 5 years and I’m always on the hunt for a really special hotel. I have a few favourites (which I’ll be covering soon) but I’ve recently found my number 1.
My perfect hotel, which I have found in The Ned, has to have an interior architecture and interior design that is stunning and inspirational in a way that I am awed and want to live in it! Hotels increasingly market themselves as a home away from home and I expect that homely hotel to nail my Pinterest pins and then some. Like restaurants, hoteliers’ interiors teams are at the forefront of international design and so rightly, we can expect to see innovative uses of materials, the latest trends in terms of styling, colour schemes etc and inspired designs. And hotels are total room porn as you run the gamut from the bar to your bathroom!
The Ned has been developed by two of the worlds industry’s heavy weights – London’s Soho House and New York’s Sydell Group. It was a huge project and it is a huge hotel – redeveloping a landmark bank into 9 restaurants, a club and 252 bedrooms and costing over £200 million apparently. I typically lean towards boutique hotels and their personalised touch and cower from monster hotels until I went to The Ned. If you have a penchant for historical interior design then you too will be was bowled over by the sheer sense of magnificence and Regency luxury interior design. I felt immediately apart of an authentic Great Gatsy set.
The Ned radiates historicity from the moment you set your eyes on the enormous, Grade 1 listed building, designed in 1924 by Sir Edwin ‘Ned’ Lutyens. Don’t be put off by its location (I never go to The City due to the overwhelming visual of corporate life), but firstly on entering the vast interior hall you are transported to the Golden Age and secondly, the eighth-floor rooftop has been converted into a heated lap pool lined with Italian marble and a drinking and dining terrace with views over St Paul’s.
If you too love that Hollywood Regency and 30-40’s style, you’ll find the attention to detail in the furniture and furnishings is executed beautifully in your bedroom and bathroom. Once I started noticing the vintage mini bar, heritage fabrics, William Morris prints and art deco and nouveau furniture and lighting, I realised there was nothing that was not sincere and researched to the nth degree.
The bathrooms are completely wonderful featuring white marble with art deco detailing, 40’s style mirrors and art deco lighting and Thomas Crapper sinks and toilets. The bedroom and bathroom especially is my favourite home away from home hotel and I will certainly be bringing some of the hotel magic home with me.
I won’t run you through the restaurants because I was only able to try one before I whizzed sub basement to the Vault for cocktails in Ned’s Club. Accessed through the original 20-tonne door, the club is lined with over 3,000 original silver safety deposit boxes. This room featured in the 1964 James Bond film, Goldfinger and it oozes that dangerous and ostentatious Bond mood.
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