Rough Luxe Hotel

We visit one of a new breed of creative, kooky hotels that's more gallery than bed for the night.

Set back from the exhaust-choked Euston Road in a row of shabby Georgian townhouses, stands a rather surprising hostelry. Behind a door you wouldn’t look twice at, lies Rough Luxe , part shabby Kings Cross pile and part luxury city hideaway.

British hotels have come a long way, but all too many hideous interiors still await us, plastered in that stain-preventative geometric vomit found in many a city-centre establishment with otherwise decent location and amenities. Refreshing, then, is the quirky, tasteful interior of Rough Luxe, opened in 2008, the work of architect and interior designer Rabih Hage, who likes to “turn a ruin into something interesting”.

From the moment you spy the Gilbert and George portrait in the reception area, the space is a breath of fresh air, with its partially sanded surfaces forming a backdrop to playful modern art, flaky paint, remnants of 185-year old wallpaper and one-off contemporary furniture design. Selected elements of the building’s interior design history have been preserved - run your fingers along the surface of the wall and you can feel the rough, ragged edges of years of painting, papering and plastering, a sort of archaeological memorial to previous incarnations. Contemporary wallpaper also features, along with art aplenty, including photographs by Massimo Listri, whose sense of depth adds a little imagined space to the otherwise undeniably bijou rooms.

There are nine guestrooms in total, each with unusual beds designed exclusively for the hotel, and some featuring furniture and fittings sourced from The Savoy’s auction. A couple have ensuites while others share bathrooms, all impeccably finished, but the tinier ones are not best suited for the fuller-figured visitor. Ottolenghi provide the breakfasts, there’s an intimate dining room featuring a table made of salvaged timber from Brighton Pier, and a cute seating area in the courtyard provides a bit of outdoor space away from the Kings Cross fumes. You might also want to ask about the hidden ‘anger-release machine’, an inspired piece of stress-busting equipment by Yarisal and Kublitz. The whole experience is like staying in the tumbledown townhouse of an infuriatingly cool friend. As for the guests themselves, you’re as likely to bump into a fashion professional as a design genius over breakfast, so bring your best banter (or a notepad and pen).

If it’s space, bile-coloured geometric prints, or even uninterrupted wallpaper you’re after, there’s many a chain hotel with your name on it. If it’s utter stylishness with a hint of faded grandeur, Rough Luxe might be more your thing.

Prices start from £177 per night.
Rough Luxe,1 Birkenhead Street,London,WC1H 8BA
Tel: 020 7837 5338