hospitalitystyle.com

(Summer 2011) posted on Thu Jul 07, 2011 EDT

The London Look: Part stiff upper lip, part social butterfly, W Hotels’ first UK locale celebrates the dual culture of the British capital.

By Mary Scoviak

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Few cities have a reputation for working and partying harder than London. The Dutch design firm Concrete wholeheartedly embraces that duality in the new W hotel on Leicester Square. “We wanted to show guests the real London and what Londoners are all about,” says Ulrike Lehner, Concrete’s project architect. “The interiors are a public and private tour that guides people through the day and night of a quintessential Englishman and Englishwoman.” Both product choices and the space plan play with the British character’s inclusiveness and exclusiveness, the business-club-and-party culture, reserve and outrageousness, the day persona and night persona. “We wanted to challenge guests to change their expectations and tempt them to push boundaries into unforeseen behaviors,” she says.

Lehner and her team envisioned the hotel “getting dressed” throughout the day. The public spaces literally reference the looks that crowd the Tube and the streets in the city during business hours. Upholstery fabrics for the W’s lounge cushions, seats and stools borrow from the traditional textiles and patterns associated with Saville Row suits. Like British woolens, there’s also functional warmth in the W’s public spaces, including the open fireplaces that give the lounge the handsome sobriety of a gentlemen’s club.

The tailored furnishings are classic with a twist, as in the double-depth, black Chesterfield sofas. “Every sofa is its own social landscape where guests can meet, mingle and flirt,” says Lehner. So each of the furniture islands has its own take on the lounge’s style accented by serial changes in the lighting.

After the sun goes down and the laptops hibernate, a different side of Londoners comes out, and it’s definitely bright and highly social. “That’s what made us think of the disco ball as a signature. Who doesn’t think of a party when he or she sees that sparkly globe?” says Lehner. It would have been too simple to suspend just one in the middle of a club space. “So we decided to exaggerate the statement by using a cloud of hundreds of disco balls that create a transition from the hectic London street life to the lounge. Follow them and they’ll lead you to where the action is,” she adds.

The design doesn’t shy away from the over-the-top aspects of London nightlife and the whole entertainment scene of the hotel’s neighborhood in Soho. That’s part of the creative driver for Wyld, run by bar/club/restaurant specialist Ignite Group. Named for Sir John Wyld, a Victorian entrepreneur who specialized in larger-than-life entertainment projects, this rock-and-roll haven set out to re-energize the area’s music scene. Concrete stays true to the club’s namesake and mission by making a 3.2-ft. diameter disco ball the focal point. “We liked the idea of taking a very clear idea like this and executing it with dramatic proportions,” says Lehner.

Scale continues to provide continuity moving into the Spice Market, one of the latest offers by Michelin-starred chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Concrete imagined the space as a cabinet of spices reaching two stories high. Along the walls are the colors, flavors and fragrances of Asian cuisine. “We wanted to reveal every ingredient the chef would require for Spice Market’s signature dishes,” says Lehner.

Accessories are an integral part of this fashion statement. That’s obvious in the 600 lighting fixtures fashioned from woks custom made for the Spice Market. But it also shows in subtle touches, as in the silver and gold mirrored strokes that form patterns on the backlit glass core that unifies the public spaces. Guest rooms look more like dressing rooms, anchored by a desk and vanity table combined into a signature piece. To make both getting ready and coming back to the room more fun, guests can choose one of three lighting scenes. “A hotel room shouldn’t be just a place for a good night’s sleep. It should be a space to explore,” says Lehner. “We wanted to create an ambience in which changing for a night out in the West End would be a red carpet event in itself.”