“The hotel’s location is particularly recommended to ladies and families visiting the West End during the Season, to travellers from Paris and the Continent, arriving… at the Charing Cross Terminus; …to Ladies going to the Drawing Rooms, State Balls, and Concerts at Buckingham Palace; and to colonial and American visitors unused to the great world of London.” So proclaimed the brochure of the Hotel Metropole when it opened in 1885. Its location, Northumberland Avenue, is tucked between Charing Cross station and Whitehall. This was a Victorian-era Park Lane, and the Metropole stood as part of a triumvirate of landmark hotels alongside the Grand Hotel and the Hotel Victoria, all vying for the custom of the Victorian social elite.
Times changed, and Northumberland Avenue fell out of favour. Most of the hotels were requisitioned by the government during the Second World War, and were later used as offices: opulent buildings now faded into obscurity.
Now, though, efforts are being made to restore the street to some measure of its former glory, not least with the Hotel Metropole, although it’s now known as the Corinthia. As I approached, a dock of “Boris bikes” stood in place of the carriages that once waited outside; behind them, a perfectly coiffed young Middle Eastern couple laden with most of Louis Vuitton’s luggage range were making their way inside.
This is the flagship hotel of the Corinthia group, which has invested £300m to see the hotel’s grand golden sandstone façade restored to its original splendour, and to replace the stud walls and suspended ceilings of the government offices with lavish interiors.
It should have been big news, but the hotel’s opening in April coincided with the Nato air strikes on Libya. One of the Corinthia’s major shareholders, the Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company, found itself in an awkward position. The association was potentially damaging. The Corinthia’s Maltese owner, International Hotel Investments, put out a statement explaining that it was unaffected by sanctions and that it had obtained all the necessary licences. But London’s most ambitious new five-star hotel has therefore had to take a softer approach to its debut.
Perhaps the recent unveiling of the Corinthia’s four-floor ESPA Life spa will set it back on course. Resplendent in glossy black and white, the complex includes a Daniel Galvin hair studio, silver swimming pool, black mosaic steam room and Bond-like semi-submerged glass sauna complete with a flickering fire and piped chill-out music. It will provide strong competition for London’s luxury spa scene.
As with the spa, the public space décor dazzles with an enormous, spherical, Baccarat chandelier suspended in the lobby with one thousand and one individual crystals. Next door, an extravaganza of petals and tendrils is executed by the in-house florist next to a small Harrods concession.
David Collins has rendered Bassoon, the snug bar, in his classically sophisticated urban style with the showpiece a seven-metre-long grand piano that doubles as the bar. Massimo Restaurant and Oyster Bar shimmers with mosaic flooring and catches the eye elsewhere with striped columns, oversize glass bauble light fittings and cosy booths. Grander still is the Northall restaurant where Corinthian columns, soaring ceilings and leather banquettes provide the backdrop to a grill-focused menu. It’s a curious juxtaposition, the offerings enticingly straightforward, but priced and served in a Michelin-starred manner (sirloin steak goes for £29 with just garnish and sauce).
LOCATION
The Corinthia is 150m from the official centre of London (marked by a plaque outside Charing Cross station). In spite of being metres from the busy Embankment and close to the tourist bustle of Trafalgar Square, the location is peaceful.
COMFORT
Where the Metropole once boasted 600 rooms, the Corinthia has just 294, all of which are spacious and light. However, they are less impressive than the concept set up by the public spaces. While undeniably luxurious, some of the rooms’ design is unremarkable, in warm but neutral shades, with oak panelling, mahogany fittings and smooth contours.
Subtle style flourishes in my room included a carpet reminiscent of the Royal Festival Hall’s iconic 1951 “net and ball” design and a print of a colourful Murray James line drawing of the National Gallery. Other rooms are cosier, with the look of a gentleman’s club.
The hotel has also made an association with British artists – a resin relief of the Thames riverside by London artists Based Upon runs along the front desk.
Still, there are clearly better appointed and maintained abodes about this holiday park. Our neighbours opposite have only praise for the place – they’re so smitten, they’ve bought a cabin here. It is their sanctuary, visited on every high day and holiday, when the kids go computer-free and while away time making new friends, riding bikes, and playing on the nearby beach.
