Nobu Hotel London Shoreditch

BACKGROUND This Shoreditch hotel was announced in 2014 and opened in 2017, but closed during the Covid pandemic.

It has fully reopened, and now has the addition of a new sixth floor of 16 rooms in a slightly different style from the rest of the hotel.

Nobu Hospitality was founded by chef Nobu Matsuhisa, actor Robert De Niro and director Meir Teper. It currently has 13 hotels, with the latest in Chicago and Warsaw opening in 2020. It has plans to add properties in locations including Santorini, Rome, Hamburg, Marrakech and Tel Aviv.

WHERE IS IT? In the heart of Shoreditch on Willow Street, just off Great Eastern Road, a short walk from Old Street station.

WHAT'S IT LIKE? Certainly striking. From the outside, viewed from the small garden at the end of Willow Street, this Ron Arad Architects-designed hotel is like a modern cruise liner that has come to rest in the middle of Shoreditch, slightly bewildered but determined to make the best of things. The bow of the vessel is almost in Paul Street while the stern ends in a series of terraces with cantilevered corten steel beams and printed, layered glass, allowing light into a small Japanese-inspired concrete garden just beyond the stern of the vessel.