The Haymarket: Color yourself there.
Got to love hotelier-designer Kit Kemp, whose quirky tastes have set her Firmdale hotels in London apart so completely from everything else on offer (we love the 10 ft tall Botero cat that greets guests checking in at the art-heavy, Modern English Soho Hotel). Not to mention the friendly and competent service that seems to be a constant at each property.
Kemp & Co’s latest â promised to debut May 1st â is the Haymarket Hotel, on Haymarket just south of Piccadilly. Perhaps now, maybe Haymarket will be known as more than just home of the theater where Phantom of the Operaâs been warbling since before World War II (or thatâs how it feels).
This 18th-century street was long overlooked for one reason â it was a traffic-clogged thoroughfare en route to Trafalgar Square, at least until that was pedestrianized. Though the northern end, brushing up against Piccadilly, is still tacky as hell, with bridge & tunnel bars and a gaudy branch of TGI Friday, Haymarketâs southern end, once best known as home to the Texas Embassy Cantina (as bad as it sounds), now boasts a touch of class, with Kemp commandeering a listed John Nash-designed building for her next hotel.
The designerâs creativity is evident in several details, notably the pool in the basement (think G Spa/Hotel QT, but planned long before either made their debut), with a lounge and club-ready hi-fi system instead of zen music and omm-dispensing masseurs.
The room to book – obviously – is the penthouse suite, simply called the Townhouse. Which is exactly what it is – a separate home around the corner on Suffolk Street. The four-story pad, done up in Kemp’s signature ModBrit style, is only available for stays of a week or more, price on request (think way more than what you pay per month for your place in Manhattan.)
Speaking of Manhattan, Firmdale now owns a parking lot on Crosby Street, near the back entrance of the SoHo Bloomingdales. It’s expected to become the Crosby Street Hotel within the next couple of years. Downtown hoteliers, and they know who they are, may want to sit up and pay attention.
— Mark Ellwood
