Fusing 1920s New York glamour, the pulsating energy of the city’s creative NoMad district, and the eclectic mindset of Soho House, The Ned NoMad has taken over an early 1900’s NYC building, but brings a dose of 21st century pizzazz to buzzy Broadway.
If my middle-of-the-night arrival at The Ned NoMad is anything to go by, New York lives up to its name as the city that never sleeps. Pulling up to the hotel’s (excellently located) Broadway entrance, its comings and goings – late-night diners flagging taxis home, young partygoers looking for their next stop – were my only real marker that I’d arrived. Part hotel, part private members’ club, the building is grand, but the lobby doors are discreet, by design.
Set across all 12 stories of the intricate Beaux-Arts era, 1903 Johnston Building – a project commissioned by Caroline H. Johnston, and one of few buildings in New York at the time owned by a female – the limestone façade of The Ned NoMad has clearly had a glow up (it’s flawless), but retains all of its original charm.
The Vibe
As if to match the exterior’s magic, interiors are captivating from the second you walk into the lobby too. “The building has lived many lives,” says Bethany Gale, Interiors Design Director at Stonehill Taylor who worked alongside the Soho House Design team on renovating the property. “Home to trades like publishing, textiles, and electrical goods in the 1920s, it also sits on Tin Pan Alley, which added a musical and cultural layer that shaped the area’s identity,” she continues. “We wanted to bring all of that history into the present, not through replication, but through reinterpretation”.
Dark woods in the lobby are met by mismatched but perfectly placed furnishings. Large Persian-style rugs sprawl the floor, and are topped with a leather sofa here, a tasseled lamp there, and tied together by the first few pieces of an impressive art collection found throughout the hotel. “The embossed leather at the reception desk references the Manhattan street grid,” Gale tells us, and “in the Club Dining Room, we leaned into the 1960s with Don Draper-style details like fluted green leather chairs, floral upholstery, and Murano glass pendants”.
Inspired by the building’s original (female) owner, Caroline A. Johnston, Kate Bryan, Global Director of Art at Soho House, has curated The Ned Nomad’s almost 300-strong art collection. Titled A Different Century, it asks what representation for women, people of colour, Queer people and the specially-abled meant at the dawn of the building’s existence, and today.
Some of The Ned NoMad’s art collection, A Different Century, on display in The Atrium
Site-specific commissions include a mural by b. chehayeb, paintings by Cassi Namoda, and a tapestry by Christopher Myers. Other notable names include Glenn Ligon, who has exhibited at New York’s Whitney, MoMa and Guggenheim museums; Rashid Johnson, who’s represented by Hauser & Wirth; and David Wojnarowicz, courtesy of the David Wojnarowicz Estate, who’s work explores themes including Queer identity, civil rights, and his own experiences of living with AIDS, which he passed away from at the age of 37.
The Rooms
A vintage lift whisks you from the lobby to one of the 167 rooms and suites. I stayed in a Deluxe Room (no. 615) with a view over West 28th Street, others look out across Broadway. Interior design follows the lead of the lobby: wooden floors, hand-knotted rugs and mahogany writing desks – a nod to the building’s publishing history – mingle with starkly modern accents, like the black-painted skirtings and wardrobes, and the sink-into-me bed with a mountain of pillows (seven, I believe).
Leonard John Crofoot might have sung the words “bigger isn’t better” and “larger isn’t bolder” as his Tom Thumb character in the 1980’s Broadway show, Barnum, but if you don’t agree that this is also true in the context of hotel rooms, book the 672-square-metre Johnston Suite which comes with a living and dining area, and an outdoor terrace overlooking the city. The Grand Room, Atrium Studio, Atrium Family, Studio and Rotunda Suite all offer an accessible stay.
The Food + Drink
Is there anything more chic than waking up to breakfast at Cecconi’s New York? This perk comes as standard to all hotel guests, with eggs made 11 ways (or anyway you like) – Royale, Benedict, Florentine and as part of a full English included – alongside pancakes (a NYC must), pastries, granola or fruit bowls, raw juices and coffee, lots of coffee. Visit for dinner and you’ll find Northern Italian-inspired pizza, pasta, cicchetti, carpaccio and tartar. At the adjacent open-to-all Little Ned bar, mixologists whizz up all manner of creative cocktails – a personal favourite is the Miracle Manhattan with olive-oil-washed whisky (Michter’s Rye), bourbon, vermouth, molé bitters and cacao nibs. It’s enough to make you join in the late-night fun happening around you – both within the hotel and throughout New York.
The Little Extras
Like The Ned in London, and in keeping with the concept of Soho House (it’s owned by the same parent company), The Ned NoMad is part hotel, part members’ club. All guests, along with anyone else, have access to both Cecconi’s and Little Ned, but staying the night affords you access to members’ only spaces too.
The Magic Room at The Ned NoMad
Hotel guests are considered a ‘Resident Member’ and granted access to usually-off-limit spaces, like Ned’s Club Downstairs, The Library, Elephant Bar, The Atrium and The Magic Room, the latter taking “cues from 1920s cabaret clubs, with deep red walls, marbled wallcoverings, and antique brass details that bring back the spirit of performance and nightlife,” Gale reveals.
Member programming, which might range from art events to workshops, screenings and parties, is generally still for members’ only – but we’ll let you in on a hush-hush secret: if RSVP lists allow it, events are sometimes opened up to hotel guests too. Ask the concierge and thank us later.
And don’t bother packing any toiletry essentials; marble bathrooms come with almost everything you might need for a morning shower or an end-of-day washdown and pamper. We’re talking multiple full-sized bottles of Cowshed shampoo, conditioner and body wash in varying scents (may chang, carrot and lemon was my morning time go-to, followed by a soy protein, oat extract and pomegranate nourish in the evening) as well as dental floss, razors, loofahs and deodorant. Some Deluxe rooms also come with clawfoot bathtubs.
The To-Do List
The farmers’ market at Union Square Greenmarket
In New York? Anything you want. When you’re not exploring the (many) sultry spaces across the hotel, take time to discover the area around you. Within a few blocks from the hotel you’ll find the Flatiron Building, Madison Square Park and Madison Square Garden with upcoming performances by Lady Gaga (22, 23, 26 and 27 August), Dua Lipa (17, 18 September), Eric Clapton (19 September) and Lorde (1 October) – but the list goes on well into next year and beyond.
The expansive Strand Bookstore is a 20-minute walk away, and the place to pick up literary classics, rare first-editions, best sellers, children’s books and everything in between; nearby Union Square is home to a bustling farmers’ market every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, year round.
Then of course, there’s the Broadway shows themselves, and it would be rude not to see one while you’re staying in the world’s most iconic theatre district. Top shows in 2025 include The Lion King, Hamilton, The Book of Mormon, The Great Gatsby and The Buena Vista Social Club – all within a 30-minute walk from your room.
All image credit: The Ned Nomad
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