Hope Street Hotel
Escapes
Coordinates
53.400901° N, 2.970947°
Address
40 Hope Street
Liverpool
Merseyside
L1 9DA
Website
www.hopestreethotel.co.uk
Email
sleep@hopestreethotel.co.uk
Telephone
+44 (0)151 709 3000
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It’s hard to recall Liverpool before Hope Street Hotel. We’re sure it existed, but we can’t begin to imagine what it must have been like. A city without complementary REN toiletries? A city without amuses bouche? That’s nothing to laugh about.
Ten years ago, with a fin de siècle flourish, Hope Street Hotel colonised one of the city’s grand, 18th century palazzos at the top of the town known as the Georgian quarter; where all the really interesting architecture quietly and elegantly jostles for your attention.
As the city’s first independently spirited, design-led hotel, HSH is more than a place to stay. Within, all is calm. Exposed brick, cool shards of glass, a girder here and there. And, a decade on, the palette and the passion remains the same. The London Carriage Works restaurant (named after the venue’s previous existence as a coach builder's workshop) continues to dish up the goods, and the bedrooms continue to calm frazzled urban nerves with their Jacob Jensen telephones, rain-dance showers, Egyptian cotton and baby-soft bathrobes. Not to mention those sudden, jaw-dropping views over the chimney pots to the city’s two cathedrals.
“It was...exciting, very exciting,” says Creative Director, Mary Colson of the hotel’s launch. “We all knew and loved the building, we either lived or worked on or just off Hope Street, and we knew the timing was perfect.”
From the start, Owner Dave Brewitt was unequivocal about the kind of place he wanted HSH to be: "Discretion. Confidence. No compromise," recalls Colson, and pauses… "Also, Sellotape was banned." Clearly, this was a place that sweated the small stuff and cared about the details. Signalling a revival of the area and the city’s hospitality scene, HSH showed that Liverpool’s renaissance had spread across the city. "The timing was perfect," Colston says. "Liverpool was ready."
It was. And the hotel was a palpable, glorious hit, from day one. "We enjoyed being cool, elegant and urbane," Colston laughs. "Most national press were lazy and came with preconceptions about Liverpool. We often sent them into the city before feeding and accommodating them and their surprise almost bordered on incredulity."
Feeding them, back in 2004, was Paul Askew - now Chef-Patron at neighbouring Art School Restaurant: the Hope Street effect slowly fanning out, in pincer-like movements, spreading its quietly confident gospel (‘Less is always more’) to a city with its swagger back.
"Yes, less is more has always been our design manifesto," Colston agrees. "But not when it comes to service. We strive to be kind and intelligent and, in a 24/7/365 business, to always stay fresh too."
Unlike much that’s arrived in its wake, HSH never felt parachuted-in. Never felt like a by-rote exercise in off-the-peg interiors. "We wanted to respond to, and celebrate Liverpool’s architecture and its otherness,” Colston says. “The light, each other’s notion of good service, of a real, genuine welcome."
It’s a welcome that now extends into the adjoining Old Blind School - the hotel’s latest subtle expansion, securing even more space for those who want to come and experience the HSH way of doing things.
Next up? "Well, we’re looking at opening in another city. Liverpool in Bath would be cool…"
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Opening Hours
Monday - Sunday
24 Hours
Nearest Train Station
Liverpool Central
Nearest Bus Station
Catherine Street
Words by David Lloyd
Photography by Mike Gannon