Victoriana casts its spell on New York

Just when you thought that everything in New York had been discovered, along comes The Beekman, whose magnificent Victorian atrium has caught everyone by surprise. Sherlock Holmes meets Agatha Christie is the flavour, and providing pizzazz are two of the city’s top restaurateurs.

Location 9/10

The dark, twisty canyons of the Financial District used to be home to bankers and lawyers. Now that One World Trade Center and its environs are filling up with creative types and magazines such as Vogue, the area is getting a facelift. The Beekman is on a quiet street one block from City Hall Park, a five-minute walk to One World Trade Center, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, the Oculus (a cathedral-like transit hub with an ultra-posh mall) and Battery Park. Also nearby is South Street Seaport, which boasts boutiques, wine bars and the hip Smorgasburg food market. At Pier 11/Wall Street, take the ferry to Brooklyn or Hoboken.

Style/character 9/10

This pint-size 19th-century “skyscraper” was built in the early 1880s around the same time as the Brooklyn Bridge. Its nine floors are capped by two big turrets (now a pair of two-storey penthouses). The heart of this handsome red-brick structure is the atrium, with its fantastical wrought-iron balustrades, pretty terracotta floor tiles and glass pyramid dome. The interior décor is by Martin Brudnizki (famed for London’s Ivy and Le Caprice restaurants). The result feels like the setting for an Agatha Christie murder mystery – all fringed lampshades, bookcases filled with curios and a clubby palate of absinthe green, dusky pink and shades of cocoa. The lighting is set permanently to twilight.

Service/facilities 7/10

The hotel is a jazzy social hub with two top restaurants; a nightclub owned by impresario Serge Becker is set to open in 2017. For recovering afterwards, there is a two-storey fitness centre (opening in November). Oddly, there is no spa and the roof terrace can only be used for private parties. The concierge team, however, are five-star. Valet parking is £49 a night.

Rooms 8/10

The 287 rooms are luxurious, if a little cramped, on the more affordable end of the range, but large, high-ceilinged and glamorous from Premium King level and up. Hammered leather headboards, Sferra linens, an enormous armoire, swag lamps, marble desks and an intriguing mix of modern artworks all feature. The generous white Carrara marble bathrooms are reached via a sliding barnstyle door. There’s a large television, a Revo player and cult Brooklyn perfumier DS & Durga supplies the toiletries.

Food & drink n/a

The hotel has two of the city’s top restaurateurs under one roof, though at the time of visiting neither was open. Chef Tom Colicchio heads up Fowler and Wells, due to open imminently, where French classics such as lobster thermidor, beef Wellington and oysters Rockefeller are likely to be reinvented (mains from £24). Colicchio also provides the food for the lounge, the room service and breakfast – everything from yoghurt to the “graffle”, a foie gras waffle. Hotly anticipated in October is Keith McNally’s new Augustine brasserie.

Value for money 7/10

Double rooms from £343 in low season; and from £532 in high. Free Wi-Fi. Breakfast excluded. Housed in a handsome redbrick building built in the 1880s, The Beekman features atmospheric interiors, left

Access for guests with disabilities?

There are 14 wheelchairadapted rooms.

Family-friendly?

Cots are complimentary and rollaway beds are £56 a night. A quarter of the rooms have interconnecting doors. Children get a goodie bag and scavenger hunts.

The details

123 Nassau Street, New York, NY 10038 (001 212 233 2300; thebeekman.com) For a guide to the best hotels in New York, see: telegraph.co.uk/tt-new yorkhotels