Calling all ‘geriatric millennials’
This hip east London newcomer will appeal more to tech CEOs than to younger graduates, says Sherelle Jacobs
Until recently, hip hotels were proliferating across the world almost as rapidly as Starbucks, selling to a younger crowd the dream of nomadic “anywheres” – a life of hedonistic city breaks, co-working spaces and glutenfree breakfast boxes to go. But everything from the millennials’ flight to the suburbs to the decline in business travel has upended this trend. For London, the closure of the Ace Hotel on Shoreditch High Street was the symbolic nail in the coffin. The American chain blazed a trail, creating hotels that also function as urban hubs, with flower stores and barber shops. Its Shoreditch outfit epitomised the era’s accessible, standardised take on the “millennial hotel”, all exposed brick and guitars in the rooms.
This makes the launch of One Hundred Shoreditch, where the Ace Hotel once stood, an interesting gambit. Last year an article about “geriatric millennials” went viral, and this hotel has a flavour of that. It is pitching itself as a more mature offering to reflect what its designer Jacu Strauss has described as “the new, more grown-up Shoreditch”. Perhaps reflecting the economic squeeze on the urban middle classes, especially professionals in their first jobs, it is chasing a more exclusive clientele – the CEOs of tech companies rather than newly hired graduates.
Upon entering the hotel, I found an intriguing oasis among nearby bars which remain as raucous as ever. The lobby thronged with guests rocking to the beats of their headphones on driftwood chairs and sipping mezcal cocktails in cosy plant-fringed corners. The interiors are a departure from the warehouse-chic that became a staple of the millennial era – still affected and posey, but softer and more arty, with giant wall tapestries and timber sculptures.
The bid for a classier millennial vibe continues in the signature seafood restaurant, Goddard & Gibbs. It’s a proper seafood brasserie inspired by English fishing villages, with a raw bar piled with lobsters and oysters. Service was slow and chaotic, perhaps due to teething problems during the opening week. There is a decent range of British oysters, from Maldon to Whitstable Bay, and zingy raw options include scallops with jalapeño and buttermilk, and
The interiors are a departure from the warehouse-chic that was a millennial staple
sea bream ceviche with scotch bonnet.
A mellow cocktail bar, Seed Library, replaces the Ace’s basement nightclub. The drinks crafted by award-winning bartender Mr Lyan are subtly inventive rather than contrived creative – think sancho leaf martini, where a szechuan leaf is used in place of an olive, and an apple bellini fragranced with raspberry leaf. The retro vibe is well matched to the cocktail menu’s “lo-fi analogue” approach. Mushroom lamps illuminate a DJ stage flanked by shelves of vinyl. The mood was languidly sophisticated, with most tables quietly conversing while sipping cocktails; a few guests swayed hypnotically to the Afrobeats and 1990s R’n’B tunes being spun.
Sadly, the overnight experience in the rooms isn’t as distinctive. Save for eucalyptus plants in zany vases to scent the air and newly installed oriel windows with seating to take in the city views, they lack the fun factor and the style that made the Ace stand out.
Nor was the irony lost on me that the hotel has installed sparkling water dispensers on each floor to save on packaging, but supplies its coffee machines with plastic sachets of oat milk.
Without earplugs (which I had to request), high street-facing rooms can be noisy into the early hours at weekends. The highlight was interacting with my neighbours. There is a village feel, with guests striking up conversations in the lifts and walking their dogs.
My avocado green juice and eggs royale with wild mushrooms for breakfast improved my mood. Millennial hotels have a reputation for scrimping on the first meal of the day, touting bananas in paper bags as hip breakfast boxes, but at One Hundred Shoreditch this is an indulgent affair – perhaps reflecting how lockdowns have renewed our appreciation for sit-down meals.
I left intrigued by the experience and excited by the industry’s efforts to reinvent the millennial hotel. With our lives in so much flux, it would be unfair to expect a full-on eureka moment. But this hotel is groping towards a vision of the future which is still nostalgic and playful but less frantically hedonistic.
For a sense of what young(ish), aspirational, post-pandemic London will look and feel like, this is the place to come.
Double rooms from £269 with breakfast