The Arts Club hotel review - London, UK

When Charles Dickens and his friends launched The Arts Club in Hanover Square back in 1863, they were careful to include six bedrooms as convenient amenities for their country gentlemen members. It’s not entirely clear why, when the club moved to 40 Dover Street thirty years later, these rooms were not also transferred. No matter. The oversight has been rectified even if it’s taken over a century. David D’Almada of London-based architects Sagrada has carved out 16 new and spacious rooms and suites from offices on the building’s third, fourth and fifth floors. All can be booked by members of the club or their guests – some with views of Mayfair’s rooftops, while the penthouse looks out into the City. The interior décor takes its cue from the Art Deco era by way of Jacques Adnet, Gio Ponti, Piero Fornasetti and Hans Wegner – think embossed leather headboards, hand-tufted rugs, antique bronze decorative doors, calacatta oro marble and cast iron bath tubs. ‘We wanted to capture elements of the style of European glamour prevalent in the first half of the 20th-century,’ explains D’Alamada who was also responsible for another Wallpaper* favourite, The Norman in Tel Aviv. The club’s artwork, too, has been refreshed with the acquisition of over 40 pieces by the likes of Nobuyoshi Araki, Matt Lipps and Sam Taylor-Johnson. It’s no Bleak House by any measure.