The Victorian architecture of the Andaz London
I’ve talked to you about the Hyatt Group Hotels several times, right? You know it’s one of my favorite hotel groups and one of I use most when I travel, right? But what you still don’t know is that one of the group’s categories, one of the most recent, has one of the best concepts ever, a concept that makes us fell unique, part of the family, special. And all that was quite present in our stay at the Andaz London Liverpool Street.
As I previously mentioned, I was missing London quite a bit, and so we headed towards Her Majesty lands, and the Andaz was one of our choices as mandatory hotel. And what a rightful bet!
Located in one of the most important and busy streets in town (everything in London is a bustle!), Liverpool Street, right next to the Liverpool Station, we found a centenary building (more than one, to be correct), with years and years of history, and delighting its guests after the renovation by the Hyatt Group and more particularly of its Andaz concept.
The concept of this category of hotels is not having any barriers between guests and employees, making all of our necessities, from A to Z, to be met and all our tastes known by the staff, making us feel at our families and friend’s homes, with nothing, but really nothing, left to chance.
I can assure you that’s what I felt during my stay, but so you can understand what I mean, I’ll tell you all about my experience.
The Lobby without reception of the Andaz*
First Impression:
When we left the Liverpool Station we searched around for the hotel and immediatly found it, a beautiful Victorian building, with its orange tones rivaling with the blue sky (yes, it was sunny during the London winter!). Along the building there are several luxury stores, some entrances to bars and restaurants (some of which of the hotel) and an elegant entrance, and quite modern, to the hotel.
Right away, with a building so big, so many stores, so much confusion to the mix, would make an impersonal reception probable, right? Wrong! As soon as we entered Andaz, we had at least three employees attending us (they were a lot, and each client entering the hotel has its own “personal” staff!), we were asked how we were doing, accompanied to comfortably seat and served some coffee, to me they’ve already won! Only after this warm welcome they did our check-in, because the most imporant at Andaz is for the guest to feel at home.
There’s not a specific reception desk, there are no barriers between guests and employees, the check-in is calm and only after the client is well installed!
A lovely spiral between the several floors
I observed everything around me, a quite modern and sophisticated decoration, very charming and with details that make us feel at home, also giving identity to the hotel. On the lobby, above our heads, I was able to enjoy the spiral that unfolds along the hotel, giving access to each floor.
We were told that the building on its total was the combination of three buildings, one from 1884, the main and entirely Victorian, another from 1901, and a more modern one, connecting the previous two.
Also an highlight to the indications to the several areas of the hotel not being written on the walls, but projected by light beams, we saw some at the lobby, and we would find out many more in the hotel.
The modern side of the hotel
While waiting for our room, we were accompanied to a more intimate area of the lobby, a sort of living room with a table and chairs with an amazing design, of rustic style, but at the same time cosmopolitan, where we were served tea, biscuits and fruit. Moreover, this area is one of the places, or lounges (yes, I said one, here’s more!) of the hotel where we can serve ourselves during the day, without having to pay! Yes, for free! Here we find coffee, tea, non alcoholic beverages, biscuits and fruits. And for those not convinced already, in the evening, this area transforms itselft and serves the guests small snacks and wines, and that obviously delighted me on the evenings!
Convinced? No? Let’s move on to the bedrooms then!
Room With a View
Bedrooms:
There are 267, including 15 suites. How is it possible for an hotel so big to have so much personality? At Andaz is possible!
We stayed in a wonderful Room With a View, and what is that, you ask?!
A Room With a View is a room inspired in Urban Art, in which one of the walls of the bedroom is amazingly painted, to bring us street art, it’s an anthem to the artists, and a way to get closer to art and the artistic culture of London, mainly in the East area of the city.
For me, it’s a perfect combination, proving once again the clever way the hotel acts, assuring not only the inclusion of it in the dinamics of the surrounding area, but also the approach to the London life. One of the maxims of Andaz is precisely that: Arrive a Visitor Depart a Local.
Returning to the bedroom itself, the bed was huge, but really huge, comfortable and soft, the contemporary bedroom was able to transmit comfort in every detail. The bathroom was beautiful, and I must warn you if you decide to have an immersion bath, pay attention because it’s one of the fastest bathtubs to fill up I ever saw!
One of the most interesting details of the bedroom is the fact of the mini bar being completly free, similarly to the Lounge areas, filled with juices, waters, fries, biscuits, coffee and teas.
The breakfast in the restaurant 1901
Restaurants /Bars:
Well, the Andaz is one of the most complete in terms of gastronomical options! There are seven spaces, two of them being Lounges.
So, we have the 1901 that serves as restaurant and wine bar to the several meals of the day, for a typically British five o’clock tea, an evening with a good wine or a calm dinner with some of the best European gastronomy. In this space we had the chance to have a delicious breakfast.
During this year, the 1901 will suffer some changes, ceasing to be a restaurant to embrace another dynamic inside the hotel.
The Catch Champagne Bar & Lounge is one of the places if you want a joyful night and full of gaiety, where we relaxed a bit in a party night, full of happy people and quite drunk! A true example of the London crazyness, full of guests and locals.
Sashimi and nigiri at Miyako
We also had a great dinner at Miyako, the Japanese restaurant of the hotel. Decorated in a simple way, with contemporary and oriental details. Great sushi, with highlight to the scallops shashimi, the tuna nigiri and the spicy tuna rolls.
From the hot dishes we tasted, the soft shell crab fried with a tempura was also great, with good flavor and well executed, succulent and crunchy at the same time. In terms of sweets, the winners were the ice creams, creamy and sweet enough.
Another of the gastronomical spaces of Andaz is the EastWay, very famous for its brunch and grilled meats, an authentic combination between a Parisian Brasserie and an American Steakhouse in the center of London.
George Pub*
Last but not least, the George Pub, an English Pub, completely traditional, moreover, the entire space dates back a hundred years, having been remodeled. A true British bar!
Obviously, this hotel having several gastronomical options accessible to the general public, with direct entrances from the street, the clients not staying at the hotel can only circulate in these spaces, once the acesses to the hotel are only possible with the room key (card), in order for safety to be assured.
One of the hotel lounges
Services:
Andaz assures its guests a memorable stay, both for the typical quality of a five stars, here presented in a more relaxed way without snobberies, and for the spaces of comfort it has, and also gastronomical.
Although not having a pool, it has a Fitness Center, with a fully equipped gym, with last generation equipments and Personal Trainer service and physiotherapy, also presenting a spa service with massages and beauty treatments with the signature of the products Anne Semonin, and Turkish bath, perfect to relax in the most agitated of the European cities.
Fitness Center
The most incredible in all of this it to think the entire complex is located in a former Egyptian Temple. I said this hotel had lots of history!
But, to those looking for something different, Andaz presents us something unique, an imposing room, with several types of marbles with countless value, with a beauty not translatable, and a former Masonic Temple. It was closed during lots of time, being discovered through a fake door during the hotel reconstruction works.
Masonic Temple*
Nowadays, used for several events, like secret dinners, private parties, or classical horror movies sessions, a concept created by the hotel, for guests and locals, assuring a quite fun night or better put, a very creepy night! An architectural example to which not even Madonna could resist (it’s said she had quite a party there!).
Besides this place, the hotel still has another, in a completely different line, but also interesting, the Andaz Studio, a room to the style of a New York loft, where we can plan a friends dinner, a showcooking, the kitchen being a true “ferrari” of the stoves!
Obviously, besides these spaces, the hotel has also the common rooms for business meetings, congresses or conferences, in a total of 14 spaces equiped to fulfil the needs of its guests.
Service:
What more can I say about this experience, along the article I left my opinion about the service quite present, one of the best I ever had, for sure. Highly personalized, unpretensious, effective in fulfilling all the needs of its guests, friendly without exaggeration, sincere, attentive without being invasive.
The Victorian side, inside the hotel
A unique experience assured by a group that proved to know the best that is made in the hotel business.
Andaz London is the hotel of art, of the unique fragrance felt in each corner (made me remind quite a lot of our experience at Park Hyatt Paris (see), of the customization of each act, the attention to every detail, it’s the hotel that although huge, is able to make us feel at home or at our friends’, it’s the hotel that carries, in a light way, decades and decades of history and preserved places in a way so magical that make us travel through time.
Thank you for this experience Andaz London Liverpool Street!
Andaz London Liverpool Street
Rooms from 254€
40 Liverpool Street – London
+44 207 961 1234
Text:Cíntia Oliveira | Photos: Flavors & Senses and release (marked with a *)
Disclaimer
We were at Andaz London Liverpool Street by invitation of the Hotel, whereas this not alter our work, being the opinion and the text of the exclusive responsibility of the author.
