Soho Hotel

A bastion of cool with plenty of unique touches
Word to the wise: The hotel’s private cinema hosts a movie club on Sunday afternoons at 3.30pm. Popcorn is free, and guests can order champagne to be delivered to their seats.

Despite the fickle tastes of the London in-crowd, the Soho Hotel – tucked down a side-street on a site that was once a carpark – remains one of the hottest places in town to party, be seen and – occasionally – to sleep. The downstairs areas are constantly buzzing as musicians, film directors and magazine editors hold press conferences in meeting rooms or hash out new projects at the bar.
Away from the frenzied activity, the hotel is actually quite calm, especially on the top two floors. Floor-to-ceiling windows and cast-iron finishes give the rooms a Manhattan feel, and the Italian linens are soft and sumptuous. Each room is individually decorated, generally in one or two shades, and the furnishings are elegant and minimal - quite a contrast to the untreated wood and 10-foot porcelain cat sculpture in the lobby.