Checking In: The Soho Hotel

Words - Tajinder Hayer

Photography - Nicholas Andrews

Why go away for the weekend when you can check into your own city?

Londoners are particularly good at taking London for granted. We know the shortcuts, the restaurants, the bars and the places we swear we'll visit more often. Hotels, meanwhile, are usually somewhere we send visitors.

Checking In is about changing that. This new Rakish Gent series is an excuse to check into a London hotel for a night or two — whether that's during fashion week, Christmas shopping, a theatre weekend or simply because you fancy doing something different without actually leaving the city.

For our first stay, we checked into The Soho Hotel.

Opened by Tim and Kit Kemp in 2004, the hotel sits just off Dean Street, tucked away on Richmond Mews. It's close enough to the centre of Soho that everything is immediately accessible, but once inside, the atmosphere changes. The streets are still there, but they feel considerably further away.

The Suite

We stayed on the fifth floor in one of the hotel's suites, and this was where the stay really made sense.

The room was properly spacious, with a generous living area, bedroom, marble bathroom and, best of all, a large furnished terrace overlooking London. In a city where hotel rooms can sometimes feel designed around the concept of fitting a bed into a relatively small space, having somewhere to actually sit, relax and spend time was a welcome change.

The interiors are classic Kit Kemp: individual, colourful and full of pattern, art and texture. There is nothing particularly anonymous about the rooms at The Soho Hotel, and ours was no exception.

The bathroom was equally generous, with a deep bath, walk-in shower and double basins. It is the sort of room that makes you want to stay in for the evening rather than simply use it as somewhere to change before dinner.

The Look

The Soho Hotel has never attempted the anonymous version of luxury.

Kit Kemp's interiors are full of colour and personality, but they never feel disconnected from where you are. The hotel has an unmistakably London character, with modern art, bold fabrics, oversized furniture and plenty of smaller details to discover. The public spaces continue the theme. The Drawing Room is colourful and relaxed, while the Library is quieter and more restrained. There is also the rather impressive ten-foot Botero cat in the lobby, which is difficult to miss and considerably more interesting than the usual hotel sculpture.

The result is a hotel with a point of view. Every room is individually designed, so there is no sense of walking into the same hotel room you stayed in somewhere else last month.

Dinner at Refuel

There was little reason to leave the hotel for dinner.

Refuel, the hotel's restaurant and bar, serves British and European dishes and occupies a comfortable corner of the building away from the bustle outside. It's polished without feeling overly formal, which suits the hotel.

The bar is also home to the Nine Regions cocktail menu, which takes nine different regions of England and builds a cocktail around ingredients sourced from each. It's a neat idea and a good reason to stay for another drink before heading upstairs. Although Soho has an almost absurd number of places to eat and drink within a few minutes' walk, one of the pleasures of checking into a hotel is not having to make another decision. Dinner downstairs, a drink, upstairs and bed. Done.

A Very Good Night's Sleep

The most underrated part of a hotel stay is still the simplest: sleeping well.

Our room was comfortable and quiet enough to feel removed from the Soho streets outside, despite being right in the middle of them. After dinner, drinks and a full day in the city, it was exactly what we wanted.

By morning, the fact that you are staying in the middle of Soho rather than somewhere on the outskirts of London becomes particularly appealing.

Breakfast, Then Soho

Breakfast at Refuel is an easy way to start the day before heading back out into the city.

And that's really the appeal of The Soho Hotel. You can have breakfast, leave your bags upstairs and be in the middle of Soho almost immediately. Shopping, galleries, restaurants, bars and theatres are all within easy reach. The hotel also has two private screening rooms, including a 100-seat cinema, which adds another dimension to the stay and gives the hotel something beyond the usual bedroom-restaurant-bar formula.

But you don't necessarily need an itinerary.

The fifth-floor terrace was enough of an excuse to slow down. The room was comfortable enough to spend time in. The food was good, the service was attentive and the location meant that when you did want to go out, Soho was right there.

That's the point of Checking In.

Sometimes a break from London doesn't require a train, a flight or a suitcase. Sometimes you just need to book a room in a part of the city you already know, close the door behind you and let someone else take care of everything for the night.

The Soho Hotel
4 Richmond Mews, London W1D 3DH
Firmdale Hotels