St John Hotel

JUST OPENED

One of London's finest restaurants has moved into the hotel trade. Eyebrows were raised at the announcement that a St John Hotel was opening in the heart of the West End. There were happy smiles, too, when co-owner Trevor Gulliver explained it would be 'that rare thing - a hotel where people would actually want to eat'. To which end, the first floor, ground floor and basement are given over to a bar and restaurant; above them, there are 15 rooms and a three-bedroom rooftop suite - the bathroom's round window looks west to Big Ben.

On premises well known to a previous generation of Soho theatre-diners - the site used to be Manzi's 'famous seafood restaurant' - the decor is in keeping with the white, masculine, minimalist style of the original Smithfield restaurant, itself converted from a derelict smokehouse.

St John's approach to the hotel trade isn't entirely unprecedented. The template of carefully designed but thoroughly simple rooms that was set by the Soho House hotels (Dean Street Townhouse; Shoreditch Rooms; High Road House) can perhaps be seen in St John Hotel's offhand self-descriptions: 'Mini Grand, Urban Hut' or, in relation to the cheapest 'Post-Supper Rooms', 'These smaller guest rooms remove the need for
a taxi home after supper.'

But no one is forgetting that the St John Hotel can add catering credentials to its clubbily jocular take on a room for the night: the bar is confident enough to list just three cocktails (Dry Martini, Negroni, Dr Henderson) and the restaurant serves breakfast, elevenses, lunch, a 'Little Bun Moment' at teatime, and supper, brilliantly, until 2am. St John's foray into hotels may not be another revolution, but it will surely be a massive success.