LAURA SLATTERYstays at the Mandeville Hotel, in London
MY PUPILS widened when I walked into the lobby of the Mandeville Hotel. By the time I had dunked the key card into my room’s power slot, they were fully dilated. It was not that the Mandeville was so amazingly spectacular, it was just that it was my kind of place: colourful on the verge of brash. The Mandeville is a city hotel that’s not trying to be anything other than a city hotel.
Owned by the Summit Hotels group, it is on Mandeville Place just north of James Street, one of the arteries that peels off Oxford Street into Marylebone village (Bond Street is the closest Tube station).
The Mandeville is in a restored Edwardian building that was once a hospital for wounded second World War airmen. It has been stylishly refurbished, with some fine furniture by Julian Chichester.
My deluxe room had lime and mauve curtains, a pink striped sofa and a white leather headboard on the cushion-adorned bed, which, although carefully made up, avoided the rigid, starchy hotel linen effect. The neutral taupe backdrop and mahogany wardrobe completed the decor, while a flatscreen television in the centre of the room could be swivelled to face either the couch or the bed.
Overall, the design of the hotel was modish and perhaps vulnerable to dating in that way that modish interior decor has a habit of doing.
I loved the hotel’s deVigne Bar, but there was something about the long, damask-printed mirrored bar that gave it a slight resemblance to the Big Brother house circa 2005.
I arrived too late to try the deVille restaurant menu – last orders are at 10pm – but there was an extensive bar and room service menu.
Breakfast, which was not included in my rate, featured both Cumberland sausages and service of the quality you would expect for the tariff.
The Mandeville’s other marketing jewel is its “pink afternoon tea”, in which it will attempt to sucker guests into a decadent session of meringues, elaborately iced cupcakes, tea (or champagne) and scones, all served on Zandra Rhodes butterfly motif china.
If you’re not picking up the hen weekend vibe, then you’re not trying hard enough, for afternoon tea at the Mandeville appears to be a gender-specific activity.
A “men’s afternoon tea”, by contrast, “promises to be a relaxing and masculine affair”, according to its website – the boys get whiskies, backgammon and blue Tiffany china.
Nothing about the Mandeville is especially cheap, and there is something contradictory about splashing out on a hotel that most people will largely use as a base for exploring the dense, vibrant city that surrounds it.
I’d never stayed in Marylebone before and only had time to skim its gentle surfaces this time around. At the northern end is Madame Tussauds, but the highlight for shoppers will be Marylebone High Street, occupied by upscale boutiques, an eclectic mix of cafes and the charming Daunt Books.
A good place to get stuck into sightseeing proper is the Wallace Collection, a private museum in Manchester Square. Here, you will find various rococo delights, most of which seem to have just magically landed fresh from revolutionary France.
Some of the vases displayed are so chintzy that the audio-guide admits that even Madame de Pompadour would have found them a bit much, while there are more writing desks in this family hoard than I will see in my life.
I’d trade them all for a swivelling flatscreen.
- WhereMandeville Place, Marylebone, London, 00-44-20-7009-2200, mandeville.co.uk
- WhatFour-star hotel.
- Rooms142 bedrooms. A penthouse suite with terrace from £500 (€600) a night.
- Best ratesSingle rooms start at £130 (€156), superior double from £150 (€180), deluxe from £170 (€205), excluding breakfast.
- Restaurant and barDeVille restaurant and deVigne bar.
- Child friendlyYes.
- AccessibilityWheelchair accessible rooms available.
- AmenitiesWi-fi, pay-per-view films, mini-bar.
Go Overnights are reviewed anonymously and paid for by The Irish Times