• Location, Location, Location! Oh and if that isn’t quite enough to tempt you, there is the little matter of the World-famous Cowshed spa complete with steam rooms and chill out area.
• Heated rooftop pool.
The Whole Story
Soho House is not a hotel, it’s a private club – the hottest private club in New York – that happens to have a small hotel. The rules are simple, if you’re not a guest you cannot eat in the restaurant, swim in the pool, lunch on the roof, have a drink in the bar, watch a film in the private screening room, throw a private party in the library, or chill out in the Cowshed – the club’s famous spa… unless you’re a member. Two key words apply to Soho House; privacy, exclusivity and laid back charm. Oops that’s five words, but you get the idea. One thing it is not is stuffy. As a club, it has managed to attract the kind of people that normally never belong to clubs. Film directors, writers, artists, creative types in all fields make up the member roster, and yet Soho is not painfully arty either. It has struck a balance between being cosy and trendy, if there’s such a thing. Part of the credit, without a doubt, goes to designer Ilse Crawford, whose great strength is that she wasn’t a designer when she took on the job. She was a journalist, a magazine editor, who had shaped an entire publication in the mould of what she liked and what she didn’t. She brought an editorial freedom to the interiors of Soho House which go beyond the notion of style. Traditional, deep buttoned chesterfields share the same space with Saarinen tables, Italian lamps and Danish design classics. The look, if it has to be defined as such, is a mix of laid back modern and iconic antique, with the odd bit of bling. Unlike the Mercer which gives you clean, paired down minimal loft spaces, Soho House gives you bohemian loft – big, baroque carved beds, egg shaped tubs, French style cupboards, 50s consoles, 60s lamps etc. But more important than how it looks is how it feels. Somehow they have managed to conjure the warmth and hospitality of a small, private British club in the most hyped up area of Manhattan.
The Rooms
Split into four categories (Playpen at 325 square feet, Playroom at 425 square feet, Playhouse at 750 square feet and Playground at 950 square feet), the rooms make good use of their large warehouse proportions, with soaring ceilings, exposed beams, colourful murals and chandeliers. The beds are vast and some have extravagant wooden frames (painted black, white or silver). The Playhouse and Playground rooms have giant egg-shaped baths big enough for two, as well as quirky, oversized angle lamps and pleasingly old-fashioned leather sofas.