NHOW LONDON, SHOREDITCH
If Disney ever built a London-themed hotel, I can imagine it looking a bit like the Nhow. But the fact that this 190-room new build is actually in London (in the arty East End) makes it less tacky, more kitsch than that sounds. Think a Kate Moss circa 1990 vibe (with Britpop soundtrack), plus a splash of Banksy and a smattering of Shoreditch House (which is nearby). On entering the vast technicoloured lobby/bar/restaurant/workspace just off City Road, I’m struck by how many art installations compete for my attention. There’s a 30ft model of Big Ben taking off like a rocket, London Underground LED matrix boards, graffiti-style murals of Chinook helicopters and Union Jack furniture. Not to mention cockney-rhyming-slang bar tables and Tracey Emin-esque neon signs. Take sunglasses. Designed by Project Orange and curated by Jealous Gallery using local artists, this is maximalism writ large and, love it or hate it, it’s a talking point.
We’re in the Penthouse – bigger than my London flat – which has a 1970s
Abigail’s Party feel with a hostess trolley, raffia-effect walls and Bakelite-style phones, plus all mod cons.
Luckily, the hotel isn’t called Nhow as an attempt at millennial slang but because it’s part of the global NH Hotel Group. Branded as one of its ‘unconventional, cosmopolitan design hotels’, it boasts four stars and offers great value.
The hotel’s Bell & Whistle pub-style restaurant serves modern British fare, but there are other great venues in the vicinity – try Noci on Islington Green – and there are Brompton bikes you can hire for £10 a day to get around.
There’s no spa in the hotel (although it does have a good basement gym), so for something a bit different, try Banya No.1 (gobanya.co.uk), an authentic bathhouse just a few minutes’ walk away. Treatments include being whipped in a sauna with birch sticks before being plunged into an ice-cold tub. Called a ‘parenie’, it actually makes you feel great, as everyone from Emilia Clarke to Renée Zellweger and Justin Bieber – who’ve all been – will testify. And while they probably didn’t stay at the Nhow (it only opened in January 2020), I’d happily recommend the penthouse suite to them next time. EMMA JUSTICE
ROOMS FROM £149 A NIGHT, THE PENTHOUSE FROM £549. NHOW-HOTELS.COM/EN/NHOW-LONDON