Ian Schrager and Marriott's first London EDITION — 173 rooms inside the 1835 Berners Hotel building on Berners Street, opened September 2013 with Jason Atherton's Berners Tavern, the booking-only Punch Room and the Lobby Bar that essentially reset the London hotel social scene.
"Ian Schrager's most disciplined London project — a Studio 54-veteran's reading of Georgian London, with a lobby bar that reset what a hotel social scene was supposed to look like in 2013 and a tavern still good enough to stand on its own a decade in."
The London EDITION opened in September 2013 as the first European EDITION (and the second to open globally after Istanbul). The building had been the Berners Hotel since 1835 — Charles Dickens reportedly stayed during the Crimean War — and the Schrager-Marriott venture acquired the lease in 2010, gutted everything that wasn't original plasterwork, and rebuilt the property over two years. The work preserved the lobby's 19th-century plaster ceilings (the most ornate in Fitzrovia) and the original Marble Hall, and inserted a contemporary minimalist register beneath them — Schrager's recurring move, perfected here.
The 173 rooms are arranged across the eight floors of the original Berners building. The signature is Yabu Pushelberg's contemporary minimalism in oak: oak-panelled walls (light or dark), oak floors, white-on-white bedding, brass detailing, and a single oversized window in each standard room that frames Fitzrovia chimneys. Standard categories run 25 to 30 square metres; the Loft Suites on the top two floors are 50 to 60 square metres with mansard windows; the Penthouse occupies a private rooftop with two terraces, 200 square metres, and views across the Fitzrovia rooftops to the BT Tower. Bathrooms are Italian marble; turndown is the same scented-bedside ritual every Schrager hotel has run since the Royalton in 1988.
The dining and drinking floor is the property's strongest commercial argument. Berners Tavern — a Jason Atherton restaurant occupying the original Berners ballroom under its preserved plaster ceiling and three Frank Auerbach paintings — is a Bib Gourmand winner that has held London-best-Sunday-roast recognition continuously since opening; the dining room is, on its own, the most photographed in Fitzrovia. The Punch Room is the booking-only 1830s-themed cocktail bar (one room, capacity 14, reservation list only, the original London bar to elevate the punch revival to fine-dining standard). The Lobby Bar — open marble floor, Jamie Hayon chandelier, sofas in the round — is the all-day Fitzrovia social room that the property's reputation rests on.
Position is the second proposition. Berners Street places the hotel three minutes from Oxford Circus Tube, four from Tottenham Court Road, six from the British Museum, ten from Soho, twelve from the Charlotte Street creative-industries crowd. The hotel sits at the centre of London's media and advertising district — Fitzrovia is where most of the major creative agencies and publishing houses are headquartered — and the Lobby Bar functions as their de facto industry meeting room. For an anniversary booked around the West End, a long-weekend stay where the Friday-night social atmosphere is part of the brief, or a media/advertising business stay where the hotel is the location, the EDITION is the most reliably appropriate London choice.
For an anniversary stay built around the social-scene side of London — a Berners Tavern dinner, a Punch Room cocktail in the booking-only room, the Lobby Bar afterwards, and an Oxford Street/Theatreland walking position the next morning — the EDITION is the cleanest answer. The Loft Suites with their mansard windows are the romantic booking; Penthouse for the milestone variant.
For a hen weekend or stag where the hotel itself is the social venue — Punch Room and Lobby Bar handle the evening, Berners Tavern the dinner — the EDITION is among London's strongest answers. The Loft Suites accommodate a small bridesmaid party; the Penthouse for the milestone version. Soho is a five-minute walk if the night moves on.
For media, advertising and creative-industries business stays — Fitzrovia headquarters anchor WPP, Saatchi, Conde Nast, Universal Music, BBC Broadcasting House — the EDITION is the meeting hotel of record. The Lobby Bar is the de facto industry meeting room; Berners Tavern handles the client dinner; the property's eight private event rooms run the small board meeting brief. Penthouse for the visiting CEO.
10 Berners Street
Fitzrovia
London W1T 3NP
United Kingdom
Oxford Circus Tube 3 minutes; Tottenham Court Road Tube 4 minutes; Theatreland 7 minutes; British Museum 8 minutes.
173 rooms
Standard rooms from £620/night
Loft Suites from £1,650/night
Penthouse Suite from £8,500/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
Original Berners Hotel 1835; Schrager / Marriott opening September 2013
Berners Tavern by Jason Atherton
Punch Room (booking only, 14 seats)
Lobby Bar with Jaime Hayon chandelier
3 Frank Auerbach paintings in tavern
Yabu Pushelberg interiors
24-hour fitness centre
8 private event rooms incl. Marble Hall
From £620/night. The Penthouse books three to four months ahead any season; Loft Suites book two months ahead for any spring or autumn weekend. The Punch Room reservation list opens for the calendar quarter four weeks ahead.
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