We name five London hotels for the design-conscious traveller to stay in 2024.
In a city known for its history, energy, and melting pot of culture and ideas, London is always a destination for those passionate about design. We’ve curated five hotels that offer completely different perspectives of the city in 2024. Starting with Paddington’s recently opened Grand Hotel Bellevue London by Fabrizio Casiraghi, we head to Hoxton Holborn and Southwark to experience their ‘contemporary cool’ hospitality, then to the theatrical The Londoner hotel by Yabu Pushelberg before arriving at the tranquil escape of Birch Selsdon Hotel by design studio A-nrd.
Grand Hotel Bellevue London
Paddington, London
Grand Hotel Bellevue London is the first British outpost for French hospitality group Lignée Hotels. Designed by French architect Fabrizio Casiraghi, the name behind the Hôtel des Grands Voyageurs in Paris, the recently opened boutique hotel is located within a former Victorian townhouse. Spanning 60 guest rooms and five floors, Grand Hotel Bellevue London is designed to emulate the warmth of a traditional English home, imagined as the ‘London residence of an eclectic couple’.
Greeted by a white Victorian facade in Norfolk Square, Paddington, it’s immediately clear upon entry that Fabrizio wanted to design each space as ‘if it were a cocoon’. The reception area is wrapped in rust-ochre walls and dark boiserie, layered with a mix of bespoke velvet and antique furnishings, a marble fireplace and period mouldings. In the adjacent a Pondicherry Bar, the interiors feature focal textiles by fashion label Bode. The material palette is more restrained in the guest suites, where cream walls and dark wood meets terracotta or soft green carpets, curtains, and custom soft furnishings, with matching tiles in the bathroom.
Grand Hotel Bellevue London | Photography by Billal Taright
Grand Hotel Bellevue London | Photography by Billal Taright
Grand Hotel Bellevue London | Photography by Billal Taright
Grand Hotel Bellevue London | Photography by Billal Taright
Grand Hotel Bellevue London | Photography by Billal Taright
The Hoxton Holborn
Holborn, London
The Hoxton Holborn embodies the energetic spirit of London’s creative scene, located just near the city’s West End. Formerly a telephone exchange, the hotel features 220 guest rooms designed by the hotel’s in-house interior design team AIME Studios. Each room draws inspiration from the building’s Brutalist architecture, with geometric motifs and whimsical printed wallpapers referencing scenes from novelist and Holborn local Charles Dickens. AIME Studios also collaborated with social enterprise Artbox London for the art collection in each suite.
Like all Hoxton hotels, the pink-toned open lobby captures their hospitable ethos: an expansive, light-filled space that’s popular with both guests and locals. Here, you’ll find a stand-alone coffee bar that combines leather, brass accents, and a striking terrazzo floor, and a statement mural by local artist Laura Wickstead. The hotel’s restaurant, Rondo, serves modern bistro fare under the culinary direction of head chef Tristan Downes, celebrating local British ingredients. Below, a basement venue called La Cave specialises in small plates and natural wines. As with all Hoxton Hotels, Holborn includes ‘The Apartment’ – a 1970s disco-inspired meeting and events space.
The Hoxton Holborn | Photography courtesy of The Hoxton
The Hoxton Holborn | Photography courtesy of The Hoxton
The Hoxton Holborn | Photography courtesy of The Hoxton
The Hoxton Holborn | Photography courtesy of The Hoxton
The Hoxton Holborn | Photography courtesy of The Hoxton
The Londoner
Leicester Square, London
Described as the first-ever ‘super boutique’ hotel, The Londoner opened in September 2021 as part of the family-owned hotel group Edwardian Hotels London. Sitting front and centre in Leicester Square, with Soho, Covent Garden and the National Portrait Gallery on its doorstep, the hotel has a distinctive blue-tiled exterior. It spans 16 floors in total – eight above ground that land at a rooftop bar and eight below, with event spaces and an entire floor devoted to wellness.
Award-winning multidisciplinary design practice Yabu Pushelberg have created The Londoner’s interiors, resulting in immersive spaces that reflect its film and theatre location, tempered with a modern British sensibility. It’s also a project that reflects the multi-layered nature of their work, including product design, lighting design, and styling.
One level up from the main lobby on a private mezzanine level is The Residence where you’ll find the Drawing Room, Y Bar and the Whiskey Room. 8 at The Londoner sits on the top floor of the hotel – an izakaya-style restaurant and bar with an open-air terrace.
The Londoner | Photography by Henry Bourne and Andrew Beasley
The Londoner | Photography by Henry Bourne and Andrew Beasley
The Londoner | Photography by Henry Bourne and Andrew Beasley
The Londoner | Photography by Henry Bourne and Andrew Beasley
The Hoxton Southwark
Southwark, London
Located on the south side of Blackfriars Bridge, near London’s South Bank and Borough, The Hoxton Southwark embraces its eclectic surroundings and the neighbourhood’s industrial past.
The 14-storey hotel houses 192 guest rooms designed by AIME Studios. The open-plan communal areas reflect Southwark’s heritage with unique tiling patterns and textiles, together with antique and bespoke furniture by British makers. Art in the communal spaces is predominantly sourced from emerging British talent, curated in collaboration with Project on Walls. The guest rooms feature Crittall-style windows framing city views, complemented by industrial elements like concrete ceilings and exposed brick walls.
Albie is a warm and inviting all-day dining venue on the ground floor of Hoxton Southwark, while Seabird, the rooftop seafood restaurant on the 14th floor, offers views across the city and an extensive oyster selection. When you’re not enjoying the hotel’s relaxed and welcoming atmosphere, there is a swathe of galleries, theatres and food markets within minutes of the hotel to explore.
The Hoxton Southwark | Photography courtesy of The Hoxton
The Hoxton Southwark | Photography courtesy of The Hoxton
The Hoxton Southwark | Photography courtesy of The Hoxton
The Hoxton Southwark | Photography courtesy of The Hoxton
The Hoxton Southwark | Photography courtesy of The Hoxton
The Hoxton Southwark | Photography courtesy of The Hoxton
Birch Selsdon Hotel
Croydon, London
On first glance at the Birch Selsdon Hotel, you would not believe the 19th-century manor is just 30 minutes from central London. The historic hotel is located in the 200-acre historic Selsdon Park in Croydon, South London, first converted into a hotel in 1920. Reopening in mid-2023 after major restoration, it’s the first hotel project designed by London interior studio A-nrd. Taking a sustainable approach, the design studio repurposed or adapted elements wherever possible and recovered some of the building’s original, unseen features.
The restoration included the manor’s communal areas, such as the entrance, bar, dining room, orangery and meeting rooms, while also tending to the 180 guest rooms. The hotel also includes a pottery studio, screenprinting workshop, kitchen, reading room, tennis courts and wellness areas.
A-nrd studio’s signature custom furniture designs and collaborations with local makers and artists on textiles, artwork and lighting are a highlight throughout. In particular, the hotel includes bespoke furniture by designer and maker Sebastian Cox, who has crafted bespoke pieces from timber cut down on the estate.
The Birch Selsdon Hotel | Photography by Adam Lynk
The Birch Selsdon Hotel | Photography by Adam Lynk
The Birch Selsdon Hotel | Photography by Adam Lynk
The Birch Selsdon Hotel | Photography by Adam Lynk
The Birch Selsdon Hotel | Photography by Adam Lynk
The Birch Selsdon Hotel | Photography by Inna Kostukovsky
