Review / We review the new Soho Warehouse in downtown Los Angeles – is it worth the trek?
With its cosy and gorgeous interior, Soho Warehouse is a comfortable, homelike place to relax and socialise, but will millennials make the trip to its virtually deserted area of downtown?
The newest addition to the members-only Soho House portfolio, Soho Warehouse, is beautiful, but if you are unfamiliar with downtown Los Angeles and the neighbourhood where the house is located, you may think you've ended up in the wrong place.
LA struggles with a severe homelessness issue, and if you pick the wrong direction, you could be passing rows and rows of makeshift tents and single habitats where the homeless have chosen to live.
Soho Warehouse is an oasis amid this almost desolate concrete jungle, an area currently being gentrified, albeit very slowly. The House’s design – which is a former warehouse, as its name indicates – shares a common theme with the other Houses, and that is it offers a comfortable, homelike place to chill.
Large wooden tables and plenty of seating allow for communal togetherness. Velvet and leather upholstery perpetuates the bespoke level of the members-only club.
But there is a grittiness here that other Houses do not have. Graffiti from a time when the warehouse was abandoned and rebel artists ran amok in the empty space have been left intact. The original wall arts are integrated into the overall design, which resulted in a beautifully crafted hub for the creative collective and millennial members.
Surrounded by low-rise industrial buildings, you are treated to a panoramic view from the rooftop terrace, where there is a 50-foot swimming pool; skyscrapers can be seen in the distance and rail tracks close by.
While staying here (for three nights and four days), many of the club’s members – upon seeing me punching the fourth floor lift button and knowing that to be the floor on which the hotel begins – asked me what the rooms were like. I stayed in one of the 48 bedrooms that span across three floors (3/F, 4/F and 5/F) with bedroom options ranging from “Cosy” to “Large”; all featured original exposed brickwork and 1970s style furnishings.
I was offered to stay in a “Cosy” room, which truthfully is enough for single occupancy, but I could imagine it would take some getting used to if you were staying as a couple for any length of time – though I must say, the king-size bed is one of the most comfortable I have slept in. In the evening, the turn-down team places a can of water with a tumbler on each night stand next to the bed and fills the ice bucket up (for when you need that whisky on the rocks). The bathroom is beautifully tiled with a rainfall shower. All of the bathrooms are equipped with a range of full-sized Cowshed products – a definite plus.
