The bathtubs, great protagonists of the rooms
That new sites open is always good news, but that they make it classics of a lifetime, it is even more so. We visit the recently reopened ** Gran Hotel Inglés **, a classic that comes back to life converted into luxury boutique hotel.
ran the year 1886 when on Echegaray street Do you remember that it is the new AsiaTown ?- I attended the transfer of one of the most charming hotels in the capital. The Gran Hotel Inglés exuded luxury and glamor on all four sides. Did you know that it was the first hotel to include a restaurant in its offer? They are visionaries, right?
Years passed and the hotel became among the roaring 20's Madrilenians advancing like a flagship through the center of the city, with visits from personalities from the arts such as Matisse or Valle-Inclan.
Years passed and, unfortunately, it fell into oblivion, losing its luster and depreciating until the former owner decided to close its doors in 2012.
It was now, just a couple of weeks ago, when the hotel has come back to life . Thanks to the hotel group Hidden Away Hotels which already has another hotel in Mallorca.
welcome to excellence
Your passion? Rescue hotels with history, with a soul, and return them to their former splendor. And boy have they done it.
WITH ART DECO BY FLAG
The company has made every effort to make the Great English vibrates again r. To do this, they have subjected the property to a thorough two-year restoration, in which practically everything has changed, except its essence.
The hotel is accessed by an impressive art deco lobby , who has been called LobByto , presided over by a splendid and elliptical bar, made in one piece, on which there is a spectacular bronze and leather bottle rack. References to wolves will be constant in the Great English, due to the fact that Echegaray street was previously known as Wolf Street.
The idea? Do the check-in with a signature cocktail or if you pass by without staying, sit down enjoy the opulence worthy of another era. The artificer? David Rockwell , a New York interior design studio that has managed to provide the hotel with a decoration and pose as if it were a theatrical set.
when you walk in, look up at the ceiling, please. This hotel was one of the first to install electric lighting and they wanted to wink at this milestone in their past, restoring their old lamps . The mere fact of admiring them becomes a delight in itself.
In the same lobby, in the background, an impressive library with over 600 references , in collaboration with the publisher of Arturo Perez Reverte remembering its past as a place for literary gatherings.
Cocktail and reading, what more could you ask for?
The library of the Gran Hotel Inglés is calling you
In addition, in this space they will alternate an eclectic and changing gastronomic proposal throughout the day. From breakfast to an informal dinner, passing through a traditional snack based on churros and chocolate.
WOLF 8
On the same ground floor and next to the lobby, is the restaurant wolf 8 . For this project they have had the chef Willy Moya , who has passed through the Sevillian Hotel Alfonso XIII or the Cantinery restaurant in Istanbul.
"The idea is that coming to Lobo 8 is to do it to taste traditional cuisine with a signature touch," he tells us. Xavier Polo , Hotel manager, expert in luxury and with five years of experience as director of operations at the Villa Magna.
Willy Moya assumes the gastronomic direction as a challenge and an honor, returning to the most traditional Madrid, with lifelong recipes and the latest cooking techniques.
WHAT BATHS, MON DIEU!
And now, let's get to the point. How do you sleep in the Gran Hotel Inglés? Of the 72 rooms that the hotel had, they have now been reduced to 44.
The why? so that they all have As minimum a space of 26 square meters . The interior design combines 1920s glam , with the technologies of our time. Egyptian cotton sheets, furniture created expressly for the hotel and free-standing marble bathtubs that are pure fantasy.
The rooms say it all: Madrid and bubbles
More details: the showers can fit an entire family, the inside of the closets have been lined with old postcards from guests who visited the hotel and some rooms have an outdoor Jacuzzi.
What is it like to bathe in bubbles admiring the sky of Madrid? A dream come true. "The best thing about the rooms is that the visitor can admire Madrid and mingle with it."
In addition, six of the rooms are suites, one of them being the largest luxury suite in the center of Madrid, "at least until the Four Seasons opens," laughs Javier Polo. 125 square meters, two bedrooms, bar area, butler...
Ready to daydream?
one of the rooms
The design, simple and effective