In our ongoing series, Millie Walton selects and explores the world’s best art hotels. This month, in a Frieze London special, she checks into Rosewood London and picks some of the best exhibitions happening in the area.
Rosewood London hardly needs an introduction. It is a long held favourite among A-listers, arty types, and pretty much anyone who’s looking to impress – and impress it certainly does. Stepping off one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares, you enter through an arched gateway into a cobbled courtyard where you can imagine, in days gone past, a horse and carriage trotting in, the rustling of skirts as an elegant lady teeters down the steps and in through the front doors.
John Booth installation
In modern times, the courtyard is largely reserved for swanky sports cars as well as art installations. In 2022 the artist Lorenzo Quinn took over the space with a sculpture of two giant cupped hands cradling an olive tree and last year the whiskey company Macallan transformed the space into a rugged Scottish garden complete with a bubbling brook and a suspended sun-like orb, inspired presumably by Olafur Eliasson’s Weather Project (2003-04) in the Tate’s Turbine Hall. This month sees the unveiling of a new commission by the London-based artist John Booth who’s also behind the latest edition of the hotel’s art afternoon tea and just like the pastries, it’s bold and joyful.
The Concept
Rosewood London
The kind of experience Rosewood London offers is probably what your mum would call good, old-fashioned luxury. It’s unashamedly grand with lots of marble, mirrored surfaces and polished mahogany, while at the same time feeling homey and just a touch eccentric. The doormen wear flat caps, there are bowls of sweets in the lobby, and guests can bring their dogs not just to stay in the rooms, but into the main restaurant. There are cabinets filled with curiosities, books splayed open on coffee tables and and of course, lots of art including a sculpture of a British bulldog wearing a spiky Vivienne Westwood collar.
The Collection
There is a lot of art to be found within the Rosewood’s walls, but you have to be paying attention. The art here compliments the interior spaces rather than dominating them, which isn’t to say the pieces are bland or unoriginal, more that the collection has been curated in such a way as to enhance the hotel’s character and general ambience. In the lobby, for instance, there’s an enormous abstract landscape by the Latin American artist Eduardo Hoffman that works in dialogue with the floral patterns on the glass cabinets. Then, on the shelves of those cabinets between lamps, books and glassware are little vitrines containing more quirky pieces that play on tropes of English culture: three blue and white figures assembled from tea cups, a gang of gold-hatted garden gnomes, a fluorescent blue pigeon and a giant foot appearing through the clouds to squash a London street (a tribute to Monty Python’s Flying Circus).
As part of Rosewood London’s Frieze Art Series, multidisciplinary artist Karimah Hassan will showcase her ‘Four Generations’ exhibition during a month-long residency. Her artwork is pictured here, residing on Rosewood London’s iconic marble staircase.
The spotlight on British arts (and humour) continues with James Gilray’s satirical illustrations in the boardroom, Cecil Beaton’s black and white portrait photographs of stage stars on the lower ground floor, and murals painted by the contemporary caricaturist Gerald Scarfe in the bar which send up well-known historical figures as well as current affairs. In the gym, a motivation mood board comes in the form of photographs of people practicing parkour, their bodies bent into seemingly impossible balletic poses with London’s most famous landmarks looming behind them.
The Design Details
Where the Rosewood London really excels is in creating just the right atmosphere for the occasion and that has a lot to do with clever design. Testament to this is the popularity of the hotel’s restaurants and bars beyond staying guests which is something that all hotels aim for (or claim) but not that many actually achieve. The Mirror Room where breakfast and dinner, but crucially, afternoon tea is served is all glitter and shine – the hotel bills it as a ‘jewel box’ – while the Holborn Dining Room, with its red leather banquette seating and marbled columns, is pitched perfectly between smart and casual, modern and retro.
Rosewood London
Throughout the hotel the colour palette is restrained (largely monochrome), but warm, with lots of well-placed lighting and comfy seating to make the spaces feel cosy and inviting, especially on a grey day. Many of the building’s original Edwardian features have been preserved or carefully restored but the colossal seven-storey grand staircase is the showstopper. It was installed when Pearl Assurance occupied the building in the early 90s and comprises seven different types of marble, some of which can no longer be found anywhere else in the world.
The Rooms
Rosewood London
All of the 263 guestrooms and 45 suites, including the gigantic Manor House Wing (the only suite in the world to have its own postcode) are designed by Tony Chi and Associates and continue the old-world meets contemporary aesthetic with glossy lacquer furniture, dark textured wood and Italian marble bathrooms. Even the smallest category is spacious for a London hotel with the feel of a private residence rather than a hotel room. We stayed in one of the Premier Suites which has its own large living area, separate bedroom and enormous bathroom – the next step up are the signature suites which all come with their own personal butler. There are unique objets d’art to be found in all of the rooms, but the focus is more on creating a calming, uncluttered environment which will probably come as a relief if you’re here for Frieze week – it was for us returning from the busy streets of Holborn.
The Food & Drink
There are four restaurants, but the hotel’s most famous dish is the humble British pie – it even has its own Pie Room with a street-side hatch to serve the needs of hungry Londoners. If pies aren’t really your thing, the Holborn Dining Room also offers an impressive menu of seafood – we opted for the platter which features all the best bits (oysters, crab, prawns, lobster) served on a bed of ice in a gleaming silver dish – as well as a traditional roast on Sundays. Breakfast and dinner in the Mirror Room feels like a slightly smarter affair owing to the grandeur of the surroundings but the menu is still largely focused on comforting British fare – think creamy mashed potatoes, smoked salmon served on soda bread, roasted sea bass with grilled fennel. If you’re planning on having afternoon tea, you might want to skip lunch. It comes with several courses plus an optional tea pairing (highly recommended) or a glass or two of Ruinart champagne (also highly recommended) – sandwiches first, then scones, finishing with the pièce de résistance: a trio of art-inspired pastries. Made by the hotel’s esteemed pastry chef Mark Perkins, in collaboration with John Booth, these brightly coloured little edible sculptures are as delicious as they are beautiful. Our favourite was the ‘painter’s palette’, a snowball-shaped vanilla cheesecake filled with raspberry jelly on a crispy biscuit base with flecks of food dye resembling brushstrokes.
Art in the Neighbourhood
Frieze Sculpture Park 2024, Regents Park, London. Photo by Linda Nylind for Frieze. 16/09/2024.
Summer’s over and the art world is back up and running at full speed. Even if you’re not in town for Frieze (the fair runs from 9–13 October and is within walking distance in Regent’s Park), commercial galleries tend to put on something special at this time of year and the added bonus is that they’re free (as is Frieze Sculpture but that relies on good weather). While Francis Bacon, William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti were all residents of Holborn at various stages, nowadays it’s not exactly known for its art but it’s close by to Soho where there are more than enough galleries to keep you occupied. Current highlights include Marlene Dumas’s solo show at Frith Street, featuring dark, tormented images that were made by finding shapes in spilled paint (until 16 November) and Wynnie Mynerva’s fleshy, writhing paintings at Gathering (until 9 November). Then make a trip across the river to Bermondsey where Rufai Zakari’s joyous stitched portraits are on show at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery (until 2 November) and Tracey Emin has a new solo show at White Cube (until 10 November) followed by a drink and tapas at Jose Pizzaro’s buzzy new restaurant LoLo or fine dining at Trivet.
Visitors in the Zanele Muholi exhibition at Tate Modern
When it comes to the bigger, ticketed shows, don’t miss ‘Monet and London. Views of the Thames’ at the Courtauld Gallery (until 19 January 2025) – everyone’s talking about it for a reason. The impressionist master and painted the city through hazy colour fields and the results are dazzling. Zanele Muholi’s show at Tate Modern (until 25 January 2025) is another must-see for very different reasons. It takes in the full-breadth of the artist and activist’s career with more than two decades worth of self-portraits photographs that make visible the lives of the South African Black LGBTQIA+ community. Even closer by to the hotel, the Silk Roads exhibition at the British Museum offers a mesmerising journey across China’s epic trade routes through more than 300 objects (23 February 2025) and runs in parallel to a major solo exhibition by Hew Locke in which the Guyanese-British artist explores narratives around British imperialism through objects from the museum’s collection (17 October to 9 February 2025).
Images credits: Rosewood London
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