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St Martins Lane London, a Morgans Originals hotel
London, United Kingdom · Morgans Originals · Accessible Luxury
Ian Schrager and Philippe Starck opened their first London hotel in September 1999 inside a Richard Seifert office block at 45 St Martin's Lane. The lobby came with gold molar stools, giant chess pieces, and a Light Bar that had no bar: waiters took the order and a hidden bartender mixed it. The Light Bar is gone. Starck's rooms are still the point, EllaMia spills onto the terrace, and a speakeasy still hides off the lobby.
- Opened 1999
- Neighborhood: Covent Garden
- Architect: Richard Seifert
- Interiors: Philippe Starck
About St Martins Lane London, a Morgans Originals hotel
- Time put Brad Pitt and Kate Moss at the opening party. It was Schrager's first hotel outside America. Sanderson, also with Starck, was the next London house.
- Vanity Fair counted 204 rooms at the opening and noted a Lumiere cinema and the Cafe Pelican in the old office floors. Anda Andrei turned Starck's sketches into the hotel.
- The current house lists EllaMia, the day-to-night cafe, and Restaurant 45. Morgans Originals runs it from 45 St Martin's Lane, WC2N 4HX.
History
St Martins Lane was a 1960s office block by Richard Seifert, brutalist concrete on a theatre street, with a Lumiere cinema and the Cafe Pelican somewhere in the floors. Ian Schrager, five years after Steve Rubell's death and long past Studio 54, hired Philippe Starck and Anda Andrei and opened his first European hotel here in September 1999. The lobby was a white room of gold molar stools, garden gnomes, an oversized vase, and chess pieces. Guests could change the colour of a room from a light panel.
The Light Bar, which opened with no visible bar, does not trade under that name now. A hidden speakeasy, EllaMia on the terrace, and Restaurant 45 are what the house lists today. A later redesign of the rooms was credited to Tim Andreas of Banjo, keeping the colour-changing light. The address is 45 St Martin's Lane, WC2N 4HX. Vanity Fair's 204 rooms is the opening count.
The setting
45 St Martin's Lane is Covent Garden and the West End theatre strip, a short walk from Leicester Square, Covent Garden market, and Charing Cross. Trafalgar Square is the south end of the same street. This is not Soho, though Sanderson, Schrager's next hotel, was.
Amenities
- Tailor-made meetings, events and parties
- Christmas parties and festive celebrations
- Weddings, civil partnerships and unions
- Private dining
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