F Setting the STANDARD
EMMA JOHNSON recalls her stay at one of London’s hippest new hotels as it prepares to reopen its doors to guests
ROM the moment you spot the upside-down sign outside, you know The Standard is not your... um... standard hotel.
Step into the lobby and you are transported into a groovy world of bright colours, prints and wood panelling.
“Welcome to the Seventies,” I overheard one of the porters joke with a couple as he picked up their luggage and directed them to the lifts.
It’s a sci-fi Seventies though. In his maroon boilersuit-style uniform the porter himself looked like something from the Star Wars movies.
That futuristic feel continues up into the rooms – 266 of them, in 42 unique styles ranging from Cosy Core rooms in the middle of the hotel to terraced suites with outdoor bathtubs that overlook St Pancras station.
We booked into a King’s Superior room. It was open-plan style – the bath and pink and black-tiled vanity area were at one end of the room, the bed and seating area at the other – and had wraparound panoramic windows affording us a view over King’s Cross. I couldn’t help thinking it felt like the deck of a space ship.
All rooms feature huge beds, Italian sheets, Bang & Olufsen sound systems and designer bath robes by Craig Green.
If The Standard is striking inside – and believe me it really is, it’s a veritable party for the eyes – outside is even more dramatic.
Situated opposite King’s Cross and St Pancras station, it is housed in the former Camden Town Hall Annex. It must have taken quite the imagination to look at the hard, grey 1974 brutalist building and see it as the perfect spot for the first Standard hotel outside of America.
But imagination is something the Standard hotels – founded by king of cool Andre Balasz – has by the bucketload. The American bon vivant counts starry spots the Chiltern Firehouse and LA’s Chateau Marmont among his many properties.
The New York, Miami and LA Standards are must-visits for the ‘It’ crowd and celebrity guests, and clearly the London one is already a hit with the hip.
We were in the capital to catch international DJ stars Camelphat play a gig in Shoreditch and the receptionist gleefully told us they were regular guests here, while Mark Ronson and Q-Tip played at its opening party.
The hotel is home to two restaurants. Isla is helmed by chef Adam Rawson – its name is inspired by Britain’s geography – and the menu is described as approachable and seasonal.
Decimo, meanwhile is Michelinstarred Chef Peter Sanchez-Iglesias’s London debut and merges the Spanish cuisine of his family with his love of Mexico.
More on that later.
We booked into Isla for dinner and were ushered to a great seat in the middle of the large, buzzy room by our server, who happily
informed us, ‘you have the best waiter’. He certainly was very good. As was the food.
We ordered dishes to share, and our feast began with an amazing amuse-bouche of scallops on a spicy sauce. We followed it with a delicious duck rilette and salty padron peppers, but the main event was a beef chop – a whopping 700g of juicy red beef which was complemented perfectly by a portion of winter tomatoes with basil and panzanella and some charred broccoli with confit, garlic, yoghurt and almonds.
It was absolutely wonderful. Somehow we even found room for a slice of burned cheesecake.
After dinner we headed to Decimo for a nightcap. The restaurant and its dark, sexy bar area are on the 10th floor of the hotel, reached by travelling up in the ‘red pill’ lift that whizzes up and down the outside of the building.
It is a theatrical way to start and end a night out and put me in mind of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
The bar itself was busy. A very attractive-looking throng of twenty and thirty-somethings was loudly enjoying late-night negronis and expensive beers.
I made a mental note to come back and sample the restaurant itself another time.
Located as you are right next to King’s Cross and St Pancras, you can be anywhere in London in no time – actually you could be in Paris in less than four hours.
During our brief stay we took the Tube over to Bond Street to window shop the designer boutiques there, before spending a few hours in the streets of trendy Shoreditch.
But actually there is lots to do right here in King’s Cross. Just a few minutes’ walk from The Standard you will find ‘shopping neighbourhood’ Coal Drops Yard. Opened in 2018, its restored railway arches are home to an eclectic mix of shops and restaurants.
All around are huge cranes, the surefire sign of an area on the up. Indeed this whole area, nearing the end of a 20-year regeneration project, which is one of the biggest in Europe, is on the verge of becoming quite a hotspot. Google is even building a £1bn headquarters right here.
No wonder The Standard hotels wanted a piece of this action. They are not the kind to be late to any party.