Sanderson

Thursday, August 28, 2003

As we enter the era of the hotel junkie, it's all about where you stay ... and it doesn't get funkier than this.

There are seven Schrager hotels in the US. The nine which make up the group were very carefully chosen, designed, built, decorated and given a large dose of wit and irony to appeal to an elite clientele.

Sanderson is the second Ian Schrager hotel to open in London. It is off Oxford Street in Soho, in what was once the headquarters of Sanderson furnishing fabrics and wallpapers. This has been transformed by Philippe Starck into a surreal, Cocteau-like dreamworld.

The team protected many features of the building — the staircase, columns and Sanderson sign remain, making the naming of the hotel a fait accompli.

Sanderson has a lushly-landscaped interior courtyard garden, world-class gourmet restaurant, Spoon+ by Jeffrey Chodorow, serving cuisine by Alain Ducasse, which diners can customise to their liking.

The Purple Bar and Billiard Room is a symphony of lavenders and violets. Curtains are draped violet silk, chairs are lavender Queen Anne while purple-etched Venetian mirrors give the room a theatrical ambience.

The Long Bar and courtyard garden are dominated by a dramatic, glowing onyx bar. Alain Ducasse provides tapas, caviar, oysters and sushi to accompany exotic cocktails. The garden is filled with flowering trees, fountains, mosaics and a reflecting pool.

Aqua is a two-storey holistic bathhouse with 14 luxurious white-draped treatment rooms. In-room massage and spa services are available.

The 150 rooms are made up of garden terraces, suites, lofts and penthouse apartments with private lifts.

The indoor/outdoor lobby has 18th-century opera curtains and sculptures which were commissioned by the hotel, as well as many interesting works of art.

Location

London's West End

Cost

Sanderson Hotel weekend rooms start at around $620 a night, including breakfast.
Qantas flies daily to London. Return economy airfares start at $2372 from Melbourne, $2380 from Perth, $2382 from Darwin and Brisbane, $2388 from Adelaide and $2392 from Sydney, per person. Prices include charges/taxes and are current at time of writing, but may vary at time of booking.