Ian Schrager Opens The London EDITION

Ian Schrager returns to London 15 years after introducing the Sanderson and St. Martins Lane hotels. His new project, The London EDITION, is the latest from EDITION Hotels, the brand he conceived in a partnership with Marriott International.

EDITION Hotels combines the personal, intimate, individualized and unique hotel experience that Schrager is known for. This delicate balancing act encompasses not only great design and true innovation, but also personal, friendly, modern service as well as outstanding, one-of-a-kind food, beverage, and entertainment offerings all under one roof.

As with all EDITION hotels, each one is a cultural epicenter and a microcosm of the best each city has to offer. Each is a portal into the essence of the city. The London EDITION preserves the finest aspects of the historic, landmark building—formerly the Berners Hotel—but reinvents the spaces within to create a dynamic fusion of old and new, past, and present. This results in a look and feel that cannot be pigeonholed into a specific time period or look and is incapable of definition or categorization.

The hotel is inspired by the grand traditions of Great Britain, namely the traditional, aristocratic English country manor and the quintessential London private gentleman’s club with a modern, edgy, urban feel. Originally built in 1835 as five luxurious townhouses, the architecture still showing the Georgian hallmarks that characterize London’s finest residences, the buildings were combined to form the Berners Hotel in 1908.

In Ian Schrager’s eyes, the lobby has evolved beyond the ideas of “hotel as theatre,” “Lobby Socializing” and “a new kind of gathering place”—concepts that Schrager himself invented when opening the Royalton in New York back in 1988.

Away from the spectacular social spaces, the hotel is devoted to the personal, the private, the intimate—an individual experience of luxury and a retreat from the street. The hotel’s rooms are paneled in either dark walnut or light oak (a choice to suit one’s own taste) subtly lit and furnished with tactile textiles, traditional tufted slipper-chairs by George Smith, a “no color” color palette, and gilt-framed Dutch Masters.

For EDITION, the individual is key – in the words of Ian Schrager, “the definition of luxury has changed: we’d rather be known for service than anything else.”