Myhotel Chelsea
London, United Kingdom By Angela Moore
This is sister to Myhotel Bloomsbury and the second hotel in the group. Despite its irritating insistence on branding (everything is prefixed with ‘My’ and comes with a tagline) Myhotel Chelsea manages not to be the chichi boutique you might expect. It is a rather pleasant and eclectic mix of styles: a bit of English countryside, a hint of the East, a touch of fresh seaside chic.
The reception mixes a swirly purple rug, fat candles, a fishtank, white-painted wooden walls and petits-fours on an old-fashioned cake stand. Reception staff smile and seem reassuringly professional. The café-restaurant has squishy leather sofas and is something of a watering hole for a low-key Brompton Cross crowd. A recent revamp has left it feeling stylish and fun, with glamorous wallpaper and a cool bar.
The hotel’s best feature is the Library, open to guests only. This is a large, square conservatory room, with light streaming in. Elegantly battered sofas beg guests to spend long afternoons reading the papers; you can make yourself a cup of coffee or tuck into complimentary fruit. Elsewhere, there is a mini-gym and a jinja spa therapy centre.
The rooms
The hotel has a couple of single rooms, standard doubles (ziplink beds) and superior doubles (king beds and a touch more room), two Red Rooms which are of more decadent design, a couple of standard suites the Thai Suite. All rooms are lightly furnished and unexpectedly spacious. There is a lot of pink – dusky, rosy walls; pink-patterned toile de Jouy-inspired shot-silk curtains; even a pink bedspread. Very fresh and pretty, without being too girlie. The superior doubles are almost as big as the suites, and a good deal cheaper, so are the best value rooms to book. The Thai Suite, upstairs, is rather more special. It’s not particularly roomy but has an enormous, beautiful hand-made bed and a matching wooden love-seat. There are wooden floors (all the suites have hardwood floors) and a walk-in wardrobe, as well as a compact kitchenette, a jacuzzi bathroom and a steam room. Walls are textured and hard corners are cleverly softened (the hotel quietly abides by the principles of Feng Shui.) The Eastern element is so successful that one wonders why they don’t extend this throughout the hotel.
All in all, this is a pleasant, relaxed and appealing place to spend a weekend in London. http://www.travelintelligence.net/
