If you time-travelled back to 2003, people would be pretty surprised to find out Pete Doherty had ended up going into the real estate business – and even more so that he was running a fully-functioning hotel. But listen: it’s 2020, things are weird, and Pete and the rest of his bandmates in The Libertines really are opening a boutique hotel in the British seaside town of Margate later this month.
The Libertines (who, let’s be real, remain one of the finest indie bands of the twenty-first century) bought a five-storey Victorian building overlooking the Kent coastline in 2017. It has since undergone an extensive, three-year, multi-million renovation to become the Albion Rooms.
Hitting a rock ’n’ roll sweet spot somewhere between gritty and glamorous, the hotel features seven en-suite rooms with furnishing and decor picked out by the band, along with Apple Beats sound systems and plenty of subtle Libs references. It opens on September 25 and is now taking bookings. Fans, take note.
Photograph: Jason Knott
Named after the east London flat the band used to live in, the Albion Rooms also has a restaurant, coffee shop, two bars and – as you might well expect – a state-of-the-art recording studio.
The restaurant will be run by Joe Hill, a former head chef for Gordon Ramsay and Tom Aikens, who promises menus that are ‘sexy, considered and irresistible’. Downstairs, a bar called The Waste Land has been open since late last year, and the band say they hope for it to become an ‘artistic hub’ hosting poetry, life drawing, music, dancing and comedy.
Photograph: Jason Knott
Doherty, who now lives in Margate, said in a statement that the hotel was a ‘fine Arcadian bolthole, a perfect place for prophets new and inspired, to recline, write, record, with rejoicing and knees-up aplenty’. Which all sounds very Pete.
Somewhat more prosaically, co-frontman Carl Barât added: ‘It’s a colourful and inspiring home for the Libertines and I look forward to the Albion Rooms being our very own Warholian Factory.’ It’s an ambitious undertaking, that’s for sure. Whoever thought this is what would become of London’s likely lads?
Rooms start at £114 ($148, A$204). Find out more on the hotel’s website.
Photograph: Jason Knott
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