Travel
JC Stays: Middle Eight, London
Sustainability meets style in this new luxury London hotel
August 24, 2021 10:52
Sustainability meets style in this new luxury London hotel
August 24, 2021 10:52Glamour has been in short supply until now in the side streets behind London’s Holborn station, but Shiva Hotels, with a track record of bringing elegance to drab thoroughfares, are striving to work their magic on Great Queen Street with Middle Eight.
This property, which boasts a dozen extravagant suites fit for rock stars, started life as Edwardian concert venue Kingsway Hall, inspiring the unusual choice of musical terminology for its new iteration as a luxury crash-pad.
The stylish makeover of what was latterly a business hotel starts at entry level with a dramatic double-height lobby, in which an impressive show of curvy walls, reeded wood panelling and forest-like beams aims to visually represent the owners’ commitment to sustainability as well as luxury.
This ethos extends even to the bathrobes in every one of the 168 rooms which, despite being plusher and more generous than most, are fabricated with recycled plastic somewhere in the mix.
Rooms are spacious but serenely minimal, with soothing aqua walls and a touch of understated glamour in softly lit cornices. All are equipped with sumptuous bedding and the latest tech — 42 inch flat-screen televisions with soundbars and Chromecast, plus the de rigeur Nespresso coffee machine and accoutrements arranged in a cocktail bar-style hospitality nook.
However, it’s the dozen large suites converted from the former hotel’s meeting rooms which make this hotel unique; they are all different but equally spectacular.
Most have indoor gardens; mine had a dining table at its centre and a living wall overflowing with greenery.
This atrium space, which allowed natural daylight to flood into the suite, divided the opulent bedroom from a living room furnished with cinema-size television screen and armchairs from which to view in comfort.
The bathroom, up a step from the separate dressing area, opened to the bedroom via a Japanese-style sliding door to reveal an inviting freestanding bathtub.
Behind the buzzy bar at lobby level sits Sycamore, an unremarkable-looking restaurant boasting a delightful surprise: a proper wood-fired pizza oven already blazing at breakfast time.
Thus the unexpected delight of freshly-made focaccia with poached eggs and spinach to start the day, and excellent pizzas plus more substantial authentic Italian mains to choose from later.
There’s also a cosy mezzanine area, the Balcony, offering everything from board games for children to quiet work space and an art library to relax with for their parents.
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