Hope Street Hotel

Liverpool was long known as an industrial city, but as is the case in most of today’s thriving cities, its new industry is culture. And in the heart of the so-called cultural quarter, between the two cathedrals at each end of the eponymous road, the Hope Street Hotel lies walking distance from the theatres, the Philharmonic Hall, and the dockside Tate museum. The city’s best restaurants are close at hand as well, and one of quite close indeed — it happens to be the hotel’s own London Carriage Works, doing its best to bury the old stereotypes about English cuisine under the guiding hand of co-owner and chef Paul Askew.

Hope Street is itself a converted carriage works (hence the restaurant’s name) and makes the most of its architectural history — the spacious open-plan rooms have high ceilings and exposed brick walls and ceiling beams. Add heated hardwood floors and custom-made cherry furniture and the result is miles more warm and inviting than the sterile gallery aesthetic of many English boutiques.

No corners cut here; rooms feature in-wall LCD screens with DVD players, unmetered broadband internet, and massive beds with Egyptian cotton sheets. Bathrooms are a wonder as well, with gushing rain showers and inventive Arne Jacobsen fittings, and luxuriant REN bath products. Top-floor suites have dramatic views of the city and the Mersey river.

The Residents’ Lounge, in the basement, is one of Liverpool’s hot spots, the sort of place you’d never get into if guests weren’t guaranteed admission. A Steinway grand piano is the centerpiece, but if it sounds too highbrow, don’t fret — your fellow revelers are as likely to be pop stars and Everton and Liverpool footballers as they are classical pianists or torch singers.