A terrace (hotel) to dominate the neighborhood
CHILTERN VERSUS ZETTER
No, it's not a boxing match. It is the battle that is being waged between the two most in, or hip, or hot (or however we want monosyllabic) places to call it, in this neighbourhood. Let's introduce the contenders. **In one corner of the canvas we have the Chiltern Firehouse**. When André Balasz plants his flag in a street, it is as if he placed an oxygen cylinder on it. He situated his last great London project, this hotel-restaurant, in an old fire station. Chiltern Firehouse was, when it opened in 2014, the place everyone should go (let's use the English verb must ) . It was there until Clinton. Now, past the fever of the first months, remains one of the unavoidable sites of the city . In his restaurant, championed by Nuno Mendes, it was impossible to find a table. Today, with luck and planning, if possible.
The hotel-restaurant to go to in a former fire station
**The second contender in this hip-hot war is The Zetter Townhouse **. It arrives, when the Chiltern fever is calmer, to take away its space of modernity and celebrities. Local gods like benedict cumberbatch . In his favour? It's new, has the character of a small hotel ( 24 rooms ) and a cocktail bar in whose bar we already want to be elbowed. Although, really: do we really have to choose between the two?
God has walked here, that is, Benedict Cumberbatch
THAT MUSEUM YOU WERE MISSING ON YOUR LIST
Marylebone also has its level museum. It would be missing more: this is London. This is the ** Wallace Collection **, a collection of painting and applied arts from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries located in a mansion, Hertford House . Visiting it empty would already be worth it, but it is full of French painting of great masters, porcelain and furniture . You won't have to queue; You won't need to book online or fight with hundreds of people to read the label of a painting. Instead, you will have the opportunity to see, very quietly, paintings by Frans Hals, Watteau or Fragonard . It's a secret that hides another secret: The Wallace Restaurant, a French cuisine restaurant of the hallmark Peyton and Byrne which is also open for dinner on Fridays and Saturdays. A rarity of a place.
A museum secret that hides another great secret
SLEEP AS IF WE LIVED IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
This neighborhood is perfect to stay in on any visit to London; it is close to everything: Hyde Park, Mayfair, Soho, Oxford Circus, Notting Hill... The curious thing is that it is not the area chosen by most people. Here, in addition, there are sensational hotels such as The Marylebone Hotel (belonging to The Doyle Collection). It is not the classic London hotel with fabric walls and flower bedspreads; It is an urban hotel that works if we go as a family, with our +1 or to that quarterly work trip that is unavoidable.
It is functional in the best sense (no disappointments, everything works great) and has a lively and rich breakfast . If we are very lucky we can reserve the suite, which has one of the best terraces in the area . The idea of being wrapped up in a nice blanket, with the outside fireplace looking out over London as we review the day is quite appealing.
The Marylebone Hotel is also interesting for its relationship with the neighborhood . Your alliance with the gallery Rebecca Hossak conducive to finding works of art in its corridors. The hotel is also allied with the K Bennet store , on Marylebone Lane; guests receive discounts and a private styling session, either in the shop or in their hotel room. This relationship of the hotel with its neighborhood is something common to the spaces of Marylebone: there is awareness of belonging to a community and be part of something bigger.
A modern hotel for all types of travelers
LONDON IS SHOPPING; MARYLEBONE ALSO
And to great honor. Doing it with pounds adds a plus of exoticism. London is one of the world's great shopping centers; It's been a century and it's still there with a special talent to catch what is in the street , digest it and turn it into official fashion. In this neighborhood we find “branches” of all the stores that we are looking for in the city . But what interests us is everything that we can not find in another city.
A good example of the neighborhood's charm and wisdom is Prism, a store that sells goggles and swimwear . That's all. Because yes, because it is the idea that Anna Laub, a fashion editor and model, had in mind when she opened it last year. Trunk and Trunk Clothier are two other typical stores in the neighborhood: small, exquisite but not tense . They sell men's clothing and accessories with perfectly chosen product.
Masculine elegance without tension in Marylebone
** Being Content is as tiny as it is interesting.** It offers independent cosmetics, the kind that we barely know about but want to know about. A neighborhood classic is Daunt Books, one of London's best bookstores. It opened in Marylebone High Street in 1990 with the idea of being a kind of map of the world; the books are divided by country . Walking through its space, a house from 1910 is like going on a trip but without a suitcase.
One of the best bookshops in London
eat and eat
Marylebone is going to eat. With this objective, Londoners and seasoned travelers who know the neighborhood fill its restaurants and terraces. This is an area without fireworks but with very good cuisine . Do not expect overwhelming spaces, terraces that fly over the city or excessive modernization. Yes Michelin stars camouflaged , secluded places with cuisine from around the world and a good collection of pubs. It is possible to eat very well without leaving the neighborhood and feeling that you have not repeated yourself.
For example, we can go to Trishna , where they serve Indian food with the endorsement of a Michelin star and the tranquility of a very reasonable price. Do you have a £28 menu which includes beer (Cobra) or a glass of wine . Interesting.
A Michelin Indian
Another place to eat very well in pleasant surroundings is Brasserie 108 . The space is beautiful, the food fresh and varied and the service charming. It serves breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner and is one of those places that makes us feel cosmopolitan . Little more can we ask for.
Cosmopolitanism on the plate
Something more informal is La Fromagerie , which is a cheese shop, sure, but more than a cheese shop; It is a supermarket and a restaurant. , all of it organic, with a focus on the local and very frequented by the inhabitants of the neighborhood. It is convenient to enter The Cheese Room , the cheese room and pass out from the taste. Or we can have a schnitzel, at Fischer's, a kind of Viennese coffee or dishes from the American South at The Lockhart. This is Marylebone and all of that is hip-hot.
the neighborhood cheese
ECO-MARYLEBONE
Marylebone claims its most traditional and artisanal side and that he explores very well in his gastro side . For this reason, the Sunday market of fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and takeaway food is one of its great prides. It is small, it is full of neighbors buying either. The Farmer's Market allows you to take the pulse of those who live there and how they live there.
Another of Marylebone's prides is a butcher shop. It is called The Ginger Pig and it is another unavoidable place if we want to feel (and tell) that we have been in this neighbourhood. Everything he sells comes from his farm in Yorkshire (although there are more Ginger Pigs in London, Moxton Street being the first). In addition to being a butcher and poultry sells prepared food and gourmet treats . In addition, they give classes on topics related to all kinds of meat, for example: how to prepare sausages It would be interesting to return from a trip to London knowing how to prepare sausages.
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The (atypical) neighborhood butcher shop