The Beaumont: a weird, wonderful central London hotel
You can sleep in an immersive, womb-like cubist sculpture for HK$16,000 a night, or take your pick from 72 art deco rooms. There's a louche cocktail bar and a classic grill restaurant popular with A-listers, writes Giovanna Dunmall
An elegant, urbane hotel opened in 2014 by restaurateurs Chris Corbin and Jeremy King, the duo who breathed new life into legendary London dining hot spots The Ivy and J Sheekey and opened success stories The Wolseley, Fischer's and The Delaunay. Located steps from central London's shopping and theatre district, the Beaumont's exterior features a weird and wonderful inhabitable sculpture (above) by Antony Gormley (the British artist behind those naked figures on Hong Kong rooftops looking like they're about to hurl themselves to their doom).
is both a piece of art and a suite. It looks a little like a robot, or stacked rectangles and squares (supposedly resembling the artist's crouching figure), attached to the outside of the art deco building. Inside is a living room, an ethereal all-white bathroom and then, behind a black velvet curtain and up several steps, an austere yet intimate 10-metre-high bedroom (below) lined in beautifully detailed dark oak from the New Forest and lit by a single high window. Shutters exclude all light from the room when closed and offer sky views when open.
It's not for everybody, that's for sure, and the £1,420 (HK$16,000) a night price tag cannot be ignored. But fear not, the hotel has 72 other rooms and suites, all done up in pleasing art deco style, with polished hardwood wardrobes and sliding doors, desks and timber headboards. Some have views straight out of a Victorian London film set - lots of quaint chimney tops - while others gaze out on to a sedate square with a small public garden. Spacious bathrooms are a tasteful blend of chrome, glass and marble with monochrome mosaic flooring - but many don't have bathtubs.
The hotel restaurant and bar are classy joints that are just as popular with walk-ins as they are with hotel guests. The cocktails in the louche and sexy American Bar are as old-school as the décor (black-and-white portraits on the walls, dark leather booths, herringbone parquet flooring, a mirrored bar and a glass-and bronze chandelier), with an emphasis on bourbons and American whiskies rather than experimental blends. The Beaumont is a heady, satisfying blend of champagne, gin, dry sherry, elderflower, pineapple and lemon.
The buzzing Colony Grill Room next door has art deco coffered ceilings, murals by United States artist John Mattos on the walls and a refined grandeur that is slightly at odds with its mainly classic and comfort-food-heavy menu (bigoli and meatballs, Caesar salads and grilled cheese sandwiches, grilled dover sole or rognons de veau, oysters and clam chowder). It's all delivered with great panache and camaraderie, however. A-listers are common, but there is none of the fawning by staff that can make non-celebrity guests feel like second-class citizens (I'm looking at you, Chiltern Firehouse).
Many, and here are three: the 1920s and 30s art, photos and posters from King's personal collection dotted around the hotel; the home-made chocolate bars placed in the room at turn-down; and a refreshing lack of excess gadgetry.
I almost forgot; there's a gorgeous all-white chrome-glass-and-marble spa (below) with hammam, plunge pool, sauna and treatment rooms downstairs.
Yes. Before the grade II-listed, 1926 building that houses the Beaumont was converted (and largely rebuilt), it was a far less glamorous car garage for visitors to the Selfridges department store and, more recently, an Avis rental office. The chain-store bonanza of Oxford Street is steps away, as are the well-heeled streets of Mayfair.
