By Chrissy Iley
The Ned is very exciting. The Ned is being called an urban resort. It’s the old Midland Bank Building in Bank, Grade 1 Listed from the 1920s and where there used to be cashiers there will be seven different restraurants, a music space. Ned members will get a special chance to go onto the glorious rooftop of into one of the Vault bars or spas. Soho House members will be offered Ned membership at a discount rate. I went on a hard hat tour of The Ned hotel – sorry urban resort and even though the ground floor is all builders and cashiers desks if you see the stage being built you’ll see a vision of the future – a new late night London at its best.
And then there’s the hotel aspect of it. The rooms. The smallest room – the Crash Pad will be offered at an affordable rate, especially to under 30s. Then there’s the Cosy Room – a medium and a large. All of them feature vintage furniture and trinkets and the rest of the furniture is exquisite reproduction of turn of the century twenties and thirties rooms like the wonderful four poster bed that I was able to briefly lounge on. That one has the Nick Jones signature bath in the middle of the room. In this case it’s a wood panelled bathtub. Many years ago I stayed at Soho House New York and was so excited to find I’d been upgraded to the room with the bath in the middle of it.
The touches like the vintage chandeliers, mirrors and perfume puffers is what really gives it cosy with a twist. Some of the facilities will be for members and hotel guests and the rest public. Kind of like a multi-tiered class system but hopefully something that embraces something lovely for everyone. I had to wear hard hat and boots which gave me blisters to go down into the vaults and see the old safety deposit room with its steel door and hundreds of tiny deposit boxes. The idea that they were being given a new lease of life as part of a bar or spa was somehow thrilling. There’s all different kinds of offshoots of spa – A Cowshed Spa, gentleman’s barbers, manicure parlour and hair salon. And of course lots of cocktails.
I think they’re hoping for lots of events and weddings because there’s fabulous kitchens and banqueting rooms with easy access to the rooftop and its bars and pool. The banqueting areas also exquisite. One features the biggest chandelier I’ve ever seen, I think from the 1800s. The other has multi tapestries on its wall. The Ned was originally designed by Sir Edwin ‘Ned’ Lutyens in 1924. I’m sure he’d be very excited to see how his designs have been preserved an reinvented for a new generation – but of party goers, not bankers.
Soho House has partnered with The Sydell Group to bring what might be its most spectacular offering yet. The vault was apparently used in the James Bond film Goldfinger and now it will take on the Bondian role of shaking and stirring its cocktails. The steel rooms get heavy velvet furniture and a maple ribbed bar to make them feel cosy.
The restaurants within will range from ramen bar style, Jewish deli to another Cecconi’s. And in continuing their something for everyone theme there’s a conscious effort to encourage dwellers who will take a Crash Pad room from around £200 and others who will lounge in the Lutyens Suite for more than £2,000 a night. The latter has direct access to the rooftop pool.
Even the tiniest room will drop with velvet and vintage perfume spray. Every time people say that Nick Jones he spreads himself too thin, he can answer The Ned and it speaks for itself. He spreads himself like thick velvet you can’t get enough of.