London Leave - 3
You've got to keep up to date in the world today that changes forever faster and faster. But by so doing, you can bring in yesterday. This is illustrated very successfully at Sofitel St James, a former bank, Cox & King’s and then Lloyds, right at the base of Lower Regent Street. Very well suited. Now instead, there's an Omani-owned hotel, belonging to people with a passion for hospitality. They really love making the hotel something different. It benchmarks with Brown's and Café Royal but unlike those others, it is part of an enormous conglomerate, Accor.
Amazingly it feels like an independent – in fact, thanks to Mary-Paule Nowlis, the Alsatian GM, you feel as though this is a big residence, a house with 186 rooms. In 2002 Pierre-Yves Rochon was tasked with turning the 1923 building into a hotel. In 2026 he was asked to bring the hotel forward/back to the 1970s.
Go into suite 311 today and you're immediately faced by a wall of different oranges, with black and white photos of Twiggy and Brigitte Bardot. There’s an egg chair, being modelled by Marie-Paule Nowlis, above. You've got what looks like a plastic table with plastic chairs. Remember those times? It was – and is - such fun,. Fifty shades of orange. You want to smile, particularly when you look out of the window, and there, just across the street in Waterloo Place, is the 25-foot Banksy sculpture that was installed unseen, and without permission, in the early hours of this 18th May. (According to Banksy’s social media the piece, Blinded by the Flag, is a satire on blind patriotism and political power. )
Marie-Paul Nowlis believes very strongly in choosing the right people and working with them, bringing them out. One of her team, another Marie, has been there at the hotel 15 years. When Girlahead left to go to Heathrow, Mary walked with her up to Piccadilly tube underground station and put her right on the correct train. That’s service, and that's why about 65% of those overnighting at Sofitel St James have been there before. There's a variety of eating, by the way. The main big space, the former banking hall, is two levels. Upper level is an outsourced Michelin-starred restaurant, Wild Honey by Anthony Demetre. The lower level is the hotel-run bistro very French, with dishes like gazpacho, and beef tartare with frites in a paper-lined cup, and an extremely good dress salad. No wonder so many people come back. You feel at home here – even if your actual pad does not have 156 bedrooms.
