St Martins Lane

Class: Deluxe

Style: Cutting edge

Rooms: 204

St Martins Lane was the first Ian Schrager/Philippe Starck collaboration on English shores, moving into Covent Garden a few months ahead of its younger sister, Soho’s Sanderson. The concept (at both hotels) is Urban Resort, and there’s no question guests walk into a different world upon entering, a world furnished with golden tooth-shaped seats, life-size chess pieces and hanging bare lightbulbs. Starck’s trademark irreverence may not look as novel as it did a few years ago, but it certainly sets a tone, quite a contrast to the English urban-country-house norm. Rooms are loft-style, open-plan, with a custom-designed lighting system allowing guests to set the mood with light in any color of the spectrum, emanating almost magically from a projector behind the headboard, an arrangement that makes use of the blank canvas provided by the rooms’ all-white color scheme. Windows are floor-to-ceiling, allowing for impressive views of central London—one of the benefits of retrofitting a Sixties office block rather than some Georgian landmark. As in any loft-style building, corner rooms will see the most light, and while at many hotels the “garden rooms” are those with inferior views, here it means something different; an outdoor patio with a touch of greenery provides a breath of fresh air. A Schrager hotel without a chic and in-demand restaurant would be unthinkable—this one has the tried-and-true Asia de Cuba. The Starck-designed Rum Bar and Light Bar round out the social life, which draws at least as many locals as guests. St Martins Lane lacks one thing the Sanderson has, which is a spa; then again this location is a shopper’s paradise—in choosing between the two, the key, ultimately, is: Covent Garden or Soho?