South Place Hotel

South Place Hotel offers a pitch-perfect lesson in some of the most exciting changes taking place in London — from its eastward-moving hotel scene to its most forward-thinking designers to its up-and-coming visual artists — but instead of some didactic bore, your instructor is a witty, über-savvy hotelier eager to show you a fantastic time. Of course if your hotel search has led you this far east on the map, you likely already know that the City of London and its surroundings are no longer just where Londoners work — home to one of the world’s great financial centers — but increasingly where they drink and dance and dine, far from the heavily trafficked circus of Piccadilly. And with a rooftop bar that was a coveted nightlife destination practically before it opened (LCD Soundsystem’s Nancy Whang dropped in for one of the initial DJ sessions alongside the house act), South Place knows how to play.

Fortunately, it’s as easy to get a good night’s sleep here as it is to get an expertly crafted drink. The rooms are designed by Conran, who also did the celebrated new Boundary Hotel nearby, and it’s clear who had the power in the relationship between the accountants and the designers. Rooms run from spacious-by-London-standards to positively enormous, with beds, which start out king-size and only get bigger, to match. Lavish Italian-marble bathrooms are stocked with toiletries by the perfumer James Heeley; oversized showers fit two or three bathers at a time; massive Bang & Olufsen screens come with free on-demand movies; and luxurious bedding, including mattresses wrapped in cashmere and silver (why not?), are by Josephine Home. Not that it’s all extravagance for the sake of extravagance. Take the highly functional, oversized work-desks, fitted with recessed media hubs and multinational sockets — perhaps less sexy than, say, the glass bathtub in the window of the Suite 610 room, but proof that function can coexist with form.

It’s a very short walk to the Barbican, but guests need not travel even that far to check out a bold collection of contemporary art. Custom works by young London artists hang above every bed, the hotel commissions installation pieces for its public spaces, and an annual art prize for works by London art school graduates ensures that the collection will stay fresh.

The fact that we’re only now mentioning that the folks behind South Place are highly successful restaurateurs, with outposts on three continents, speaks to the ambition of the group’s first hotel. It’s much more than a showcase for the chefs, but a pair of gorgeous restaurants — one on the roof (awarded a Michelin star), and one occupying the first floor — only add to the appeal. Of course there’s no shortage of excellent dining and drinking options off-premise, either, yet another way the hotel and the neighborhood mirror one another. South Place is not an oasis from the city, but a finely attuned complement to it.