The reception area features exhibition posters by Warhol, Hockney and Cocteau, black-and-white chevron floors, ceramic leaf wall sconces, whimsical wallpaper, and electric green panelling and trims.
British artist, designer and writer Luke Edward Hall—the name behind the hotel’s era-defying interiors.
Be whisked away by a collision of colours, patterns and eras in Paris’ 10th arrondissement—emblematic of the British designer behind this 38-room hotel and its namesake cafés.
Hotel Les Deux Gares is a railway hotel, but not in the way you might expect. Defying expectation is felt immediately from the reception area, where eyes dance over emerald green panels, checkered marble floors, voluminous striped curtains and romantic French wallpaper. This, in part, is a credit to British artist, designer and writer Luke Edward Hall, who approached his first hotel project with this interdisciplinary instinct for a youthful, ‘vibrant aestheticism’; to the vision of Touriste group founder Adrien Gloaguen; and to childhood friend, recently retired barrister and collaborator Antoine Raccat.
Gloaguen and Raccat stumbled across the abandoned hotel building that sits between Paris’ Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est stations in a narrow alleyway. Tiny, adjoining rooms with flowery wallpaper wore marks from travellers who’d passed through. Conjuring a nostalgia for 60s and 70s filmography, Gloaguen knew there was only one creative they could engage to take these references and make the interiors their muse.
The hotel is designed to feel like stepping into a well-travelled Parisian collector’s home.
Art Deco references in the colour-drenched bathrooms with green, blue and pink fixtures made in the south of England.
What Hall has orchestrated is an ‘anti-modern interior’ where more is more and joyful, custom elements feel familiar but of a style or period you can’t place. “It’s this combination of styles that, I hope, will intrigue guests,” Hall says. Candy-coloured rooms feature tangerine, coral, baby blue, and canary yellow—sometimes all in the same room—in the tiles, on the ceiling, and in contrasting trimmings.
Overlaid by upholstered headboards, 70s-inspired light fixtures, and bathroom fittings made in the south of England, Hall wanted the spaces to feel as though you were stepping into a time-travelling Parisian’s home. But this extends beyond the rooms and into the facilities, such as the fitness room, with its Svenskt Tenn wallpaper, which doesn’t shy away from the contrast between the red-and-white checkerboard floors, or the newly-opened hammam and pool, with its hand-painted sea mural by artist Pauline Leyravaud.
The hotel first opened with the hospitality offering of Café les Deux Gares across the street, where colour remains a protagonist, with Art Deco, Parisian café hallmarks such as Thonet chairs, a banquette, and stained bistro tables. Adjacent to the hotel, the Deux Gares Express draws on the 60s and 70s, with the same decorative painted ceiling by Pauline Leyravaud and classic French cuisine.
“Design can often be something very serious, whereas I want my work to convey joy,” Hall says, and it’s this sense of joy and freedom to invent and call on stories that’s instilled in every moment spent at Hotel Les Deux Gares.
Candy-coloured walls, ceilings and cornices are overlaid with striped upholstered headboards, fabric lamps and custom prints.
The newly-opened pool and hammam is painted with an underwater scene by artist Pauline Leyravaud.
One of the hotel’s two hospitality venues also designed by Luke Edward Hall, Deux Gares Express draws on 60s and 70s design, English ‘clutter’ and well-worn antique furniture.
Café les Deux Gares is located opposite the hotel and dressed with Parisian café hallmarks such as Thonet chairs, a banquette, and stained bistro tables.
Turning the idea of a railway hotel on its head, Hotel Les Deux Gares is located between Paris’ Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est stations.
