OWO - 2
Thierry Despont is main ‘modern’ designer of Raffles London at The OWO and Girlahead loves so many of the details. Corridors on the third floor, for instance, have an amazingly striking scarlet and dull grey and cream carpeting. And the curtains, which must be 12 feet high, are the same scarlet with vertical edges that look like brown leather with heavy metal studs in them - really big studs, about three centimetres diameter.
This visit, Girlahead was in Suite 319, converted from two ‘spy’offices, #307 and #308, probably the professional pads of two high-ups because they overlook Whitehall to Green Park. The cycling messengers were right next door, says alert Polish Guest Services guru Joanna Swiecka who went (pedalling on a Pashley bicycle?) to Kew to inspect the building’s original floor plans. What is now hotel suite #319 has in total four windows, almost ceiling high, and they appear even taller because of pelmets that are about 12 centimeters in depth: the pelmets are the same fabric as the soft sage and cream diagonal checked drapes (sheers are the same colors but striped. Unlike some suites in this gorgeously elaborate structure, #319 is somewhat subdued - cream walls, green-flecked cream carpeting, not too much art, and it doesn't take over the room. Plenty of sockets, UK but there's an adapter, and ample USBs. The challenges for some would be the height of the room and the fact that the items in the bathroom that need to be within reach were obviously put in for the opening GM, the ultra-tall Philippe Leboeuf - one can barely reach, let alone push, the freestanding push button, push pressure, 1906 toiletries, and the wall-set makeup mirror is way above (this) one’s head. That having been said, it's all very comfortable and the tablet control does make it easy to be in charge of the room controls. It's quite a long walk from one place in the hotel to the other, and you have to concentrate on the signage, which is good for one's mental ability.
There are public areas that are sheer beauty. There’s the glory of subterranean Pillar fitness centre, with jolly good Technogym equipment next to the 25-metre pool. There's a Guerlain spa. Right now, too, there’s the drawn-out birth of a rented-out Langosteria restaurant, opening right now just a few evenings a week but already packed out because of the success of this brand for fresh seafood. Girlahead had the great joy of lunching at Langosteria Beach club in Portofino only last week, and it was fabulous. There’s already Mauro Colnago here at Raffles London at The OWO, and there's the all-day Saison. This is just sheer beauty - see it above.
Hotel MD Olivier Thomas, from Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo, was attracted here to London partly by the fact that he and his Italian wife have two teenagers, past and present Haileybury students. He seems really happy to be settled in England – see above. He's certainly, of course, being French, a keen foodie. And if he had anything to do with the breakfast, good for him. A la carte offers oysters. The multi-station buffet may not be the largest on the planet, but it's absolutely beautiful, with three different kinds of granola, homemade, and everything's exquisitely labelled. On the buffet, that is. It’s impossible to label Raffles at The OWO. It’s a paradox.
