Hullett House Hotel

Class: Deluxe

Style: Cutting edge

Rooms: 13

Hong Kong is puzzlingly fond of demolishing its heritage buildings, so the transmogrification of the Victorian-era marine police headquarters at the southern tip of the Kowloon peninsula into a hotel was a welcome development. Better still, Hullett House has been wittily and intelligently furnished with 10 suites and five restaurants to become something rather more than simply a boutique hotel. Each of the spacious suites is individually named and decorated, but left uncluttered, with little more than a bed, wooden floorboards, a wall-mounted TV and (in some cases) a fireplace. Mainland Chinese visitors go into raptures over the Casam suite, which is hung with modern art, and the glistening white Silvermine. Westerners tend to prefer oriental styles: Shek O is a riot of crimson chinoiserie. Chacun à son goût. On which subject, breakfast on the veranda of The Parlour - overlooking sturdy banyan trees, various historical artefacts and the designer-label shopping plaza that shelters beneath the hotel - is a triumphant start to the day. Across the central quadrangle (named Fifty Pigeons), there are gourmet Cantonese and European restaurants, garden seating outside Stables Grill, and the heady thrill of a pint in the former cells that are part of the Mariners' Rest pub. Hullett House would be a rarity in any part of the world: surrounded by high-rise, hi-tech Hong Kong, it's an unexpected treasure.