Exciting hotels opening in London: 2020

Treehouse London, Marylebone

Travelling sustainably doesn’t have to end when you reach your destination. Here to prove it is Treehouse London, a new London venture from eco-friendly US hotel group 1 Hotels. The hotel, which has opened in the final moons of 2019, has taken over the upper eight floors of the building that used to house the Saint Georges Hotel in Marylebone. It’s committed to keeping its carbon footprint small, employing environmental design and energy-saving strategies to do so.

Rooms – of which there are 95 in total, including 15 suits – begin on the ninth floor and see minimalist design combine with bursts of childhood nostalgia (think classy takes on animal-shaped toys). Shaking up the typical structure, Treehouse London’s reception is on the 15th floor, next to the hotel’s restaurant – a Mexican eatery called Madera – from where guests can work their way back down to the rooms. The top floor, meanwhile, houses the hotel’s rooftop bar, Nest, which boasts a wrap-around terrace and 360-degree views across London.

Finding the hotel might prove difficult. That is, unless you know to walk through the building’s ground-floor coffee shop, Backyard, and follow the foliage-dotted wallpaper to the lifts.

Rooms from £269 a night

NoMad, Covent Garden

Those who’ve reclined, wined or dined in a branch of the New York-founded NoMad hotels will recall an old-world-glamour-meets-scandi-chic interiors, along with an easy nature and generally cool vibe. Now, you no longer have to hop across the pond – or even leave London – to enjoy NoMad’s luxe offering. The boutique hotel group is opening its first outpost outside of the US in London’s Covent Garden, in the summer of 2020.

The 91-bedroom NoMad London is housed in the former Bow Street Magistrates’ Court. The Grade II-listed Victorian building was completed in 1881 and operated as a court and police station between then and 2006. The London outlet is expected to be the most intimate of all NoMad properties. Several public areas are planned for the ground floor, including a three-storey, glass-ceilinged atrium filled with lush greenery, a signature NoMad library and 100-capacity multi-purpose function room in the former courtroom.

Room rates TBD

Nhow London, Shoreditch

Nhow, the design and lifestyle hotel group with locations in Berlin, Rotterdam, Milan and Marseille are opening a London outlet in Shoreditch. The eight-floor hotel houses 190 rooms, a ‘British’ pub, bar gym and three ‘laboratories’ (aka meeting rooms). Decor wise, the theme here is ‘London reloaded’, interpreted through dashes of Britishness (Union Jack cushions and bright murals of the Queen on the bare concrete walls) and a bold colour scheme featuring a heavy dose of lime green. As high-tech as it is hip, Nhow even has robots providing the room service.

Rooms from £190 per night

Nobu, Marylebone

Famed Japanese restaurant group Nobu was the centre of much excitement when it opened its first European hotel in Shoreditch in 2017. Now, the group – founded by renowned Japanese celebrity chef Nobu Matsuhisa alongside Robert De Niro and Hollywood film producer Meir Teper – is opening a second property in Marylebone’s Portman Square. Much like the food, Nobu’s hotels are adored for combining opulence, style and modernity. The new space has been designed by London-based firm David Collins Studio together with Make Architects. It features 249 rooms, a ballroom, meeting rooms and, of course, a new Nobu restaurant – aka another site to enjoy achingly pretty, exciting and uber modern Japanese fare.

The Londoner, Leicester Square

Why build upwards when you can burrow under ground? Such seems to be the unusual motto behind new hotel The Londoner. The latest outpost from luxury group Edwardian Hotels, The Londoner will be London’s first hotel with more space underground than above it. The Leicester Square hotel, which is expected to open in June 2020, will rise 30 metres above ground, while delving 32 metres beneath it. But before you conjure images of dingy suits with no windows, relax: all 350 bedrooms are spread across the eight storeys above ground, while the six subterranean levels are reserved for the entertainment and activities where windows won’t be missed, namely: two Odeon cinemas, a ballroom, a gym, swimming pool and beauty salons.

Whether or not The Londoner lives up to its description of being the world’s first ‘super boutique hotel’ is yet to be seen – though with the 2,200 sq ft penthouse suite costing up to £10,000 a night, it’s certainly lavish. Either way, the venture is one of the biggest ‘subterranean excavations’ ever to take place in London.

Rooms from £500 a night