The Londoner hotel to open in Leicester Square
After a rocky start, this swish new London hotel in the entertainment district is about to open its doors.
Located in the heart of Leicester Square and the British capital’s entertainment district, The Londoner hotel has waited a long time for its moment in the spotlight. It had been scheduled to open in March 2020, then April this year. Next month, the curtain will finally rise on this five-star property.
The newest addition to Britain’s largest family-owned hotel group, Edwardian Hotels London, the establishment embraces old and new, with an array of original contemporary and classic artworks adorning public areas and all 350 guestrooms.
Incorporated in its 16 storeys are a cinema, a grand ballroom with capacity for 800 people, and six food and beverage venues ranging from all-day luxury lobby dining to a rooftop izakaya lounge specialising in innovative mixology paired with Japanese cuisine. Exclusive to guests is The Residence, an elegant 24/7 zone for relaxing or working that features the plush Drawing Room, a snazzy marble cocktail bar and “secret” whisky room.
If you want to visit London’s underground, head 30m below ground level, where an entire floor is devoted to wellbeing, complete with 25m pool, spa, gym, barber and nail bar plus a place to refuel with detoxifying smoothies and Ayurvedic breakfast bowls.
Top-level lodgings include the 200sq m Tower Penthouse duplex and Trafalgar Suites (119sq m) with kitchenettes and living areas, all bearing the distinctive stamp of international design firm Yabu Pushelberg. From £400 ($760) a night.
JACK KELLY
Book club
BONES OF HILO
Eric Redman
Intrigue and murky goings-on abound in this debut novel by US journalist and lawyer Eric Redman. Hilo is on the northeast coast of the Big Island of Hawaii and Redman captures its brooding volcanic landscapes and the racial sensitivities of a society where original native Hawaiians, descendants of Chinese and Japanese immigrant workers, and haole (white people) mostly get along – until land is in dispute, and then perhaps they don’t.
I’m not aware of much fiction set in the Hawaiian Islands, although Kiana Davenport’s Shark Dialogues (1994) is simply wonderful and Paul Theroux, who lives there, has had deserved success with Hotel Honolulu (2001) and strong sales already for his new Under the Wave at Waimea. Writing in The Smithsonian Magazine on Hawaii in 2012, he mused, “An island is a fixed and finite piece of geography, and usually the whole place has been carved up and claimed. It is inconceivable that a newcomer, invariably superfluous, could bring a benefit to such a place; suspicion seems justified. The very presence of the visitor, the new arrival, the settler, suggests self-interest and scheming.”
Ironically, it’s the perfect description to set up the plot of Bones of Hilo. Kawika Wong, a rookie Chinese-Hawaiian detective under the command of a Japanese-Hawaiian captain, is investigating the death of mainland US real estate developer, Ralph Fortunato, who’s been impaled with an ancient Hawaiian spear and left dead on a golf course on the island’s “tourist side”, which is shorthand for wealthy realms such as the Kohala coast. By allegedly bribing those in power for a permit, Fortunato had illegally destroyed one of Hawaii’s most important cultural treasures to build a resort estate. Helpfully, Wong’s girlfriend, Carolyn Ka’aukai, is an expert in native history and culture and (sort of) descended from Hawaiian royalty so the plot thickens with their (not always official) investigations. Then there are more murders and distrust mounts distrust between all factions.
Wong is on shaky ground as the action moves to Washington state on the Pacific northwest coast of the US where Fortunato has “history”. The pace is good, the cultural insights intriguing, if occasionally too drenched in detail, and there’s clear evidence of Redman’s deep research into the frequently arcane Hawaiian folklore and old-time ways that lie beneath that glossy veneer of aloha tourism.
SUSAN KUROSAWA
Spend it
French candle and fragrance brand Trudon has introduced a Home Objects collection that includes diffusers in 350ml fluted glass containers topped with a recyclable aluminium ring. Each comes with eight black rattan sticks and a choice of six long-lasting scent bases, including Odalisque (orange blossom), Cyrnos (herby Mediterranean aromas) and the irresistible Abd el Kader, with notes of Moroccan mint that instantly evoke the tea lounges of Casablanca. There’s also a range of 375ml room sprays. Trudon recently opened a Sydney boutique at the corner of Glenmore Rd and Oxford St, Paddington. $299; refills of diffuser scent and sticks, $110.
SUSAN KUROSAWA