Situated at the London station where travellers from the North-East alight, the Great Northern Hotel is an ideal base for a weekend in the capital, says Sarah Marshall
THIS faithful renovation of Victorian master builder Lewis Cubitt’s 1854 railway terminus hotel celebrates the romance and glamour of golden age train travel. For example, you can glide along the Great Northern Hotel’s wide, crescent-shaped corridors and see how they were originally designed to allow women in bustles to pass “without embarrassment”.
Legend suggests the hotel is built on the site of a battle between the Romans and Boudicea. The body of the Celtic queen is said to be buried under platforms 9 and 10 in King’s Cross station.
The rooms feature elaborate mirrors, chandeliers and walnut panelling, echoing vintage passenger locomotives. Bedside tables are inspired by vanity travel cases carried on the Orient Express to Venice, and room numbering mimics the original GNH livery identity. There are three room grades, ranging from the compact Couchette, to grander olive green Cubitt suites.
The Plum + Spilt Milk bar, which takes its name from the dining car of the Flying Scotsman, is helmed by Michelin-star chef Mark Sargeant and serves a fine menu of British classics below 150 hand-blown glass lanterns. During the day, it’s flooded with light and offers superb views of Gilbert Scott’s iconic clock tower. The Snug Bar is a cosy retreat for post-dinner drinks, while coffee machines steam long into the night at the convivial ground-floor GNH Bar.
As a nice touch, each floor has its own pantry stocked with Nespresso machines and a steady supply of complimentary Tunnock’s teacakes, freshly baked cake and glass jars of boiled sweets.
The area of King’s Cross, where the hotel is situated, has undergone a tremendous transformation in the past five years, with fashionable bars and restaurants occupying former warehouses and industrial landscapes.
A five-minute stroll from the hotel, follow the Regent’s Canal towpath to discover wildlife-rich Camley Street Natural Park – the shell of a gasholder converted into a green public space – and the bookshop on a barge, Words on the Water. At the end of your walk, you can wind up at the London Canal Museum, once a storehouse for ice carried by ship and barge from Norway to make ice cream.
- Visit gnhlondon.com
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