It’s the height of sophistication to have local hotel of one’s own. Ask anyone. Mine was always The Ace in London’s glittering Shoreditch. Well, for seven years it was. But it had become what is known in the business as ‘tired’. Bit worn out. Past its sell-by date. Buggered.
Then, almost as if it read my opening paragraph, it shut down. Then, for a good old, ooh, two years or so, I’d walk past, wistfully, perhaps in a kicky bonnet (this is Shoreditch after all) and never-knowingly-didn’t-mutter, ‘Someone should really do something with this place!’
Enter, someone. What was once said Ace (ground-breaking in its day, to give due where due is due) is now One Hundred Shoreditch. And boy, is it something. The Lore Group have done the do (they off-of Sea Containers over on the South Bank and Riggs in Washington DC and Amsterdam’s superstar Pulitzer) and created a humdinger of a hotel that has given this neck of East London’s woods the sophisticated hotel experience it totally knew it needed. Goodbye fading Formica, hello hipsters-have-grown-up-and-need-soft-surfaces!
And it’s all gone pretty-as-hell because of Jacu Strauss, the Creative Director of Lore, who decided ‘a hotel that was more democratic to its visitors and guests, with genuine personal touches in the design’ was the way to go. In the rooms this reads as a palette of crisp whites and just-off-whites and gentle greys and materials that make you swoon – berber carpets, oversized bedding – and gorgeous little objets and custom tapestries with pops of non-scary reds and blues and yellows, like tropical birds swinging by a pristine beach, if you will. Sanctuaries. Big calming juxtapositions to the crazy of Shoreditch outside. It’s like the hotel double-dipped Xanax, and it totally works. (Oh and yes, we worried about the practicalities of the white upholstery too, what with a penchant for red wine this end, but it’s all removable. These design people aren’t fools.)
Downstairs it’s a little bit more rambunctious, but not silly season. The communal spaces are still that, but now they mix the diversity of the crowd with serenity. The whole ground floor is an ongoing welcoming gesture; from the come-hither reception with its beaming staff it’s onto the slightly bonkers Lobby Bar (past that huge mirror that does a great job of reflecting the pop-tastic sculptures that pepper the place) with its fantastical art installation-cum-chandelier and pizzas for picking at, then next up it’s the hotel’s superstar restaurant, Goddard & Gibbs.
Big and sexy and rammed with enough booths for everyone – that massive yellow sculpture in the middle, by the way, refers to those little towers of pebbles and driftwood and who-knows you built on childhood trips to the beach – it’s the sort of event restaurant that should be on everyone’s lips. Though no-one minds if you just want to pop in and fill your boots from the Bloody Mary station. We know we have. And while seafood is its focus – there’s a very nice brunch menu come weekends with added bottomless booze – there are decent veggie/vegan options, though we’re never going to turn our noses up at more. This is East London after all. It’s a matter for the police if you’re not vegan, right?
And they’ve only gone and roped in Ryan ‘Mr Lyan’ Chetiyawardana, among the world’s most important/influential Misters in glamorous international bars (‘Best Bar in the World’/‘World’s Most Influential Bar Personality’/‘Top 100 Modern Britons’/accolades/accolades/accolades) to create a basement bar called Seed Library, which is a masterstroke in well-lit debauchery, cosy banquettes, table lamps that you would so slip down your pants but you’re better than that, and an open invitation for plays on words (‘Gone to Seed’, etc.). As for the cocktails, it’s ‘new takes on classics with a lo-fi, analogue approach to bartending’. Which means nothing to us but it’s forcing us to believe it.
Then it’s about time we go up, up, up to the glorious Rooftop, a pink-hewn, tropical-lite temple of good times and even better views. Taking inspiration from Palm Springs – there’s your big dose of gay right there – it’s a playful escape with wide-angled views of Shoreditch and the City beyond, outdoor terraces right in front of you, a menu of sharing plates and Californian-centric snacks and, over on that far side, a big glass box for lounging/drinking/dancing that fills with glamour and memories come weekends. Weekdays too if you’re keen. And if you’re in the mood for anecdotes, a few of us swung by last Saturday for drinks and whatnot, but couldn’t get in. Which just goes to show, it really does.
One Hundred Shoreditch is a hot, hot thing, and should only get hotter. It’s totally nailed everything a destination hotel should be, and it’s totally nailed what a local hotel should be. Welcoming, fun, idiosyncratic, gorgeous, location, location, location, staff, cocktails, occasional chairs akin to clouds, cocktails, bloody good food, cocktails, views, cocktails. It’s a hotel with a sophisticated sparkle that doesn’t compromise on having a great time, and it’s striking the right tone for the Shoreditch of right now.
